Facebook’s new social-graph search may look like a fairly boring feature of interest only to marketers, but the information it is able to reveal highlights how much we make public without even realizing it. Read more at GigaOM »
YouTube got a lot of play during this week’s Google earnings call, in part because the site is starting to move the needle for Google. Read more »
Google published its latest report about how often governments are asking for data about individuals. The growth of this type of surveillance means that Facebook should consider publishing a report of its own. Read more at GigaOM »
How did the most important public companies on GigaOM’s radar fare in the fourth quarter? Here’s our roundup of quarterly report cards. Read more at GigaOM »
Evidence of Twitter’s ambition to become a media entity continues to accumulate, but if it wants to fulfil its role as a digital-media player, it is going to have to get a lot better at finding relevant content for its users. Read more »
Many publishers are trying to adapt to the way media works in a digital age, but some still see Google and the web as parasites — and Harper’s publisher seems determined to stay in the latter category. Read more »
In an effort to aid book discovery and battle Amazon’s dominance, iOS publishing platform Inkling will allow its roughly 400 ebooks to be fully indexed through Google search. The company plans to add a thousand more books this year. Read more »
Amazon is offering consumers a free digital copy when they buy a CD. It makes perfect sense to do the same for books — alas, it’s not going to happen. Here’s why. Read more »
Good news for anyone who owns CDs — Amazon is now selling music on a two-for-one basis that gives every customer a digital and a physical version of an album. The company just raised the stakes in its fight with Google and Apple over “music lockers.” Read more »
The French ISP has been told by French digital economy minister Fleur Pellerin to stop blocking online ads, because she is ‘very attached’ to the open internet. However, she also hinted that she may not be entirely in favor of net neutrality. Read more »
After a two-year investigation into Google’s search business, the feds finally issued a decision. The outcome is a clear win for Google — here’s an easy Q&A about what happened and what it means. Read more at GigaOM »
The FTC finally concluded its two-year investigation into whether Google’s treatment of its competitors broke antitrust laws. The result is a minor change to the way Google uses patents but that does little to change the company’s search listings. Read more at GigaOM »
After users complained about bad online video experiences, France’s telecom regulator launched an investigation trying to figure out if a local ISP was blocking YouTube or if it was just underinvesting in its network. A decision is expected soon, and could have worldwide repercussions. Read more at GigaOM »
Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon 16 years ago, is the second-best CEO on the planet, according to Harvard Business Review’s latest rankings. Last month Fortune named him its Business Person of the Year. Read more »
A Fox news story about the Newtown tragedy came with an ad for a bloody t-shirt while Facebook showed an ad for a shooting game. In the past, editors could have screened these ads — this is less possible online where fewer humans are involved in the ad-buying process. Read more »
Yahoo has added Max Levchin, a Silicon Valley star, to its board of directors giving it a much-needed entrepreneurial and engineering-savvy board member. The web portal will also see two of its existing directors leave, shrinking the board to 11 members. Read more at GigaOM »
Google and Belgian news publishers announced a deal that will put an end to their copyright dispute. Google says it is not paying the papers for content — so then why is money changing hands? Read more »
Included in the changes that Facebook recently announced to its privacy and governance policies was an admission that it aggregates and shares data on user activity with advertisers — and Facebook says it plans do so not just inside the network but on external websites as well. Read more at GigaOM »
Google has released its sixth semi-annual report on government information and takedown requests. The trend is not encouraging but there may be a bright spot in that more and more companies are following Google’s attempt to shine light on censorship. Read more at GigaOM »
Google says the First Amendment should apply to its search results — even if this allows the company to favor its own products over those of its competitors. Is this a legitimate argument? Read more at GigaOM »
Somebody is probably looking for a job after the search giant unexpectedly pre-announced its financial results hours before they were supposed to be released. What’s worse, the numbers were bad. Read more at GigaOM »
A federal court has found that scanning books for search — which Google was doing for a university project called the Hathi Trust — is clearly covered by the “fair use” principle in copyright law, which could help Google in its own lawsuit with the Authors Guild. Read more at GigaOM »
After seven years of legal battles, Google has finally reached an agreement with American book publishers that will let it scan and digitize books. The deal stands to make things better for readers and publishers — although Amazon is probably not happy about it. Read more at GigaOM »
Google added new Japanese reading features to its ebooks app yesterday and is now selling the Nexus 7, ebooks and movies through the Google Play store in Japan. Kobo expanded to Japan in July, and Kindle is expected to launch there in October. Read more »
Google is adding some new features to its Android ebooks app, including highlighting and annotation, translation, dictionary definitions and geographic information. Google Play Books for iOS lacks these features for now. Read more »
Google says it blocked viewers in Egypt and Libya from seeing a controversial video clip on YouTube, after the video was allegedly linked to violence in both of those countries. But should Google be censoring content without even a request from a government or court? Read more at GigaOM »
Just a few days after the approval of the DOJ’s ebook settlement, HarperCollins has entered into new contracts with ebook retailers, and they’re already discounting its titles. What kinds of deals will you get? Read more »
British arch-satirist Armando Iannucci – best known for his documentary-style dissections of the political classes — is getting ready to take on his next project: a black comedy based on Silicon Valley’s worst moments of excess. Fish, meet barrel. Read more at GigaOM »
An activist group is trying to block a $22.5 million settlement between the FTC and Google because it doesn’t require the company to admit wrong-doing. The group is making mischief rather than raising a serious policy problem. Read more at GigaOM »
Ebook buyers in 54 states and territories are set to receive $69 million in a settlement between the states and HarperCollins, Hachette and Simon & Schuster. Those who bought agency-priced ebooks between April 2010 and May 2012 are eligible for payment if the settlement goes through. Read more »
The implications of Apple’s recent billion-dollar victory over Samsung in a patent-infringement case go beyond the specifics of this particular battle — the reality is the war over software and design patents is bad not just for individual companies but arguably for society as a whole. Read more at GigaOM »
A memo written by the managing editor of the Washington Post in 1992 says a lot about how much of the future of media was obvious even then, but it also misses the most disruptive force the industry has seen — namely, the rise of social media. Read more at GigaOM »
Judge Denny Chin has allowed a coalition of scholars, librarians and digital activists to file briefs in support of Google as part of the long-running copyright controversy over the company’s book scanning. The ruling will serve to draw further attention to fair use issues. Read more »
Concerned that Google and Oracle were paying authors and journalists to influence a highly-publicized trial, a federal judge asked them to name names. Today, the parties filed their lists – Oracle names FOSS Patents blogger Florian Mueller and Google names no one. Read more »
Google is acquiring Frommer’s Travel Guides from publisher John Wiley & Sons for a reported price of $23 million. Wiley has been seeking to sell the brand off since the spring. Read more »
Google will tweak its search algorithm to push pirated content further down in search results — a move welcomed by the film and music industries. Read more »
Federal regulators confirmed a record-breaking fine related to Google’s use of advertising cookies to trick browsers and overcome default privacy settings. Read more at GigaOM »
Should journalists have to disclose when they take money from companies to “report” on issues? As this type of fake journalism becomes more common, one judge appears to have had enough. Read more »
As YouTube plans to expand its premium content initiative into the U.K. and France, some existing channel partners say additional production funding is needed in the U.S. “We’re not really funded enough to win,” said one channel operator. Read more »
Spotify’s conversion rate isn’t bad: Out of 15 million active users, more than 4 million are paying subscribers. That number may soon increase thanks to Android support for Spotify radio, which is ad-supported and offers unlimited playback of Spotify’s entire digital music catalog. Read more »
