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Friday, April 8, 2011

Government lets Google buy travel software company (AP) : Technet

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Government lets Google buy travel software company (AP) : Technet

Government lets Google buy travel software company (AP)

Posted: 08 Apr 2011 03:31 PM PDT

By JOELLE TESSLER, AP Technology Writer Joelle Tessler, Ap Technology Writer – Fri Apr 8, 6:31 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Google Inc. won government clearance with restrictions Friday for its $700 million purchase of airline fare tracker ITA Software in a deal that will give the Internet search giant a key role in online travel.

Google promises to give consumers more choices and better ways to search for plane tickets as it incorporates ITA technology, which powers the reservation systems of most major U.S. airlines and many popular online fare-comparison services, including Kayak, TripAdvisor and Hotwire.

The company had to accept significant conditions, though, in a sign that federal antitrust officials are becoming more concerned about whether Google's enormous clout as a major gateway to the Internet has the potential to stifle competition broadly online.

As Google expands far beyond its core search business into specialized markets such as travel, companies operating in all corners of the Web — and government regulators as far away as Europe — are taking notice.

Rivals and regulators alike are worried that Google could use its control over the Internet's dominant search engine to extend its monopoly into travel and other markets by steering users to its own sites and services and burying links to rivals far down in its search results. Indeed, Google's search results already highlight some of its own specialized services, including mapping, video and finance.

Although Justice Department officials did not tackle that danger outright Friday, they laid the groundwork for a potential government investigation into manipulation of Internet search results. Google agreed to ongoing federal monitoring of its behavior to win government approval.

"They clearly decided that they want to keep an eye on Google," said Thomas Barnett, an attorney who represents Expedia Inc., which opposed the ITA deal in a coalition with other online travel services including Microsoft Corp.'s Bing, Travelocity, Kayak Software Corp. and Farelogix Inc. Expedia owns TripAdvisor and Hotwire services.

"The ability to use search dominance to exclude competitors is not unique to travel," added Barnett, who was head of the Justice Department's antitrust division when it threatened a lawsuit to block Google from entering into a search partnership with Yahoo Inc. in 2008.

The agreement with the Justice Department comes at a time of mounting government scrutiny of Google's behavior in Washington and beyond.

The European Commission and the Texas attorney general are looking into whether Google manipulates search results to extend its monopoly into other online businesses. The European investigation started after competitors — U.K.-based price comparison site Foundem, French legal search engine ejustice.fr and Microsoft-owned shopping site Ciao — complained that their services were being buried in Google searches. The Senate Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee also is investigating whether Google gives its services favorable treatment in search results.

In addition, a federal judge last month rejected a proposed legal settlement that would have given Google the digital rights to millions of out-of-print books after determining that the agreement would have violated U.S. copyright laws and given Google's already-dominant search engine an unfair advantage over its rivals.

And just last week, the Federal Trade Commission announced a landmark agreement with Google to settle charges that it deceived users and violated its own privacy policy when it launched a social networking service called Buzz last year. The settlement requires Google to adopt a comprehensive privacy program and submit to independent audits of that program every other year for the next 20 years.

Eric Goldman, academic director of the High Tech Law Institute at the Santa Clara University School of Law in Silicon Valley, said the agreements with Justice and the FTC "collectively indicate that the U.S. government has more and more hooks into Google and is subjecting Google to greater oversight and reduced operational freedom."

Nonetheless, Friday's approval by the Justice Department makes ITA the latest major deal that Google has managed to clear with Washington. Other big purchases include the 2007 acquisition of Internet advertising network DoubleClick and last year's purchase of mobile ad service AdMob, both of which were approved by the FTC without any conditions.

Google has said it wants to use ITA to improve its search results for travel and doesn't plan to sell airline tickets or book other travel arrangements on its own site. Rather, ITA would enable the company to command higher ad rates from airlines, hotels, rental car agencies and other leisure services trying to reach travelers.

Google offered a hint about what could be coming in a blog post Friday. It suggested that by simply typing in "flights to somewhere sunny for under $500 in May" into Google, a user would get not just a set of links but also flight times, fares and a link to sites for buying the trip.

To win Justice Department clearance, Google agreed to license ITA's software to other companies on fair terms through 2016. And it would continue to invest in research and development of new products, which it would also have to license. Google had previously promised only to honor all of ITA's current contracts, which expire over the next few years, leaving ITA customers to worry that Google would keep its innovations for itself. Under the terms of the approval, any disputes would be subject to binding arbitration.

Google also agreed to establish a separation between ITA and other Google operations to ensure that it cannot misuse proprietary customer data or technology that resides on or runs through ITA servers.

But most significant, the government will monitor Google to ensure it does not engage in anticompetitive behavior, which could include manipulation of search results. The company will be subject to broad requirements to report to government officials on its online travel operations, including travel search and advertising. In addition, the government will establish a forum for complaints about Google's behavior. This could eventually pave the way for a broader investigation of Google by either Justice or the FTC.

The coalition of online travel services that had expressed concerns about the ITA acquisition praised the government conditions, calling them a "significant step in the right direction." Still, the group added in a statement that although "consumers won this round, but we must remain vigilant" to ensure that Google does not abuse its search monopoly.

Google says it understands that it will face more government scrutiny as it grows bigger. But the company argues that most of the accusations of anticompetitive behavior come not from users, who like its services, but from competitors that are not pleased with their search rankings. And that, the company, is not necessarily an antitrust problem.

"We built Google for users, not websites," the company said in a statement.

___

AP Airlines Writer Samantha Bomkamp in New York and Technology Writer Jordan Robertson in San Francisco contributed to this story.

House votes to repeal regs on Internet access (AP)

Posted: 08 Apr 2011 06:38 PM PDT

By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Jim Abrams, Associated Press – 2 hrs 28 mins ago

WASHINGTON – House Republicans adamant that the government keep its hands off the Internet passed a bill Friday to repeal federal rules barring Internet service providers from blocking or interfering with traffic on their networks.

Republicans, in voting to repeal rules on "network neutrality" set down by the Federal Communications Commission, said the FCC lacked the authority to promulgate the rules. They disputed the need to intervene in an already open Internet and warned that the rules would stifle investment in broadband systems.

"The FCC power grab would allow it to regulate any interstate communication service on barely more than a whim and without any additional input from Congress," said Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., sponsor of the legislation. The Internet, he added, "is open and innovative thanks to the government's hands-off approach."

But in what has become a largely partisan battle, the Democrat-controlled Senate is not expected to go along with the House. Sen. John D. Rockefeller, D-W.Va., chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, said he was "disappointed that House leadership wants to undo the integrity of the FCC's process and unravel their good work."

Even if it cleared Congress, the White House has threatened to veto a bill it said puts in doubt whether "the democratic spirit of the Internet will remain intact."

Rep. Henry Waxman of California, top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee, said nullifying the FCC rules would "give big phone and cable companies control over what websites Americans can visit, what applications they can run and what devices they can use."

The vote to pass the bill, mainly along party lines, was 240-179.

The FCC rules were adopted on a 3-2 vote last December after years of debate over the federal role in ensuring a free and open Internet. The FCC's three Democrats voted in support and its two Republicans opposed.

While generally seen as a compromise between technology companies fearing provider limitations on their access to the Internet and the big phone and cable companies insisting they need flexibility to manage Internet traffic, the rules drew a quick legal challenge from Verizon Communications Inc., which said the FCC had overstepped its authority.

A year ago a federal appeals court also ruled that the FCC exceeded its authority in sanctioning Comcast Corp. for discriminating against online file-sharing traffic Comcast said was clogging its network.

The rules prohibit phone and cable companies from favoring or discriminating against Internet content and services, including online calling services such as Skype and Web video services such as Netflix that could compete with their core operations. They require broadband providers to let subscribers access all legal online content.

They do give providers flexibility to manage data on their systems to deal with network congestion and unwanted traffic as long as they publicly disclose those practices. They do not specifically ban "paid prioritization," where a provider might charge more for faster transmission of data, but they outlaw "unreasonable network discrimination."

Wireless carriers are also barred from blocking access to any websites or competing services, but they are given more leeway to manage data traffic because wireless systems have less network bandwidth.

Even supporters acknowledged that the rules are mainly about preserving the status quo of a system that is generally working well.

But absent the rules, said Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., "there would be a major shift in power on the Internet to the broadband providers from the content providers."

He said there was legitimate fear among nonprofit and religious groups that they would be consigned to a lower tier because they could not pay a higher price for premium service. "So your Web page from Nike might load faster than your Web page from the Catholic Church because, if there was tiered access, who would be more likely to pay for the speed of the access?"

He also cited the actions of autocratic states such as China in blocking Internet content in saying the government must make clear that providers cannot discriminate against customers because of political or philosophical differences.

___

The bill is H.J.Res. 37

Online:

Congress: http://thomas.loc.

New Google CEO Larry Page reshuffles exec team (AP)

Posted: 08 Apr 2011 02:08 PM PDT

By BARBARA ORTUTAY, AP Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay, Ap Technology Writer – Fri Apr 8, 5:08 pm ET

NEW YORK – Google CEO Larry Page has promoted at least seven executives to head key parts of the company in one of his first big moves since he took over the Internet search company on Monday. The management reshuffle is an attempt at streamlining a bureaucracy that's sometimes bogged down Google even as it became the world's most valuable Internet company.

Page, Google's 38-year-old co-founder, took over from Eric Schmidt, who is staying on as executive chairman. Page has made it a top priority to cut out the bureaucracy and speed up innovation at Google, which is facing threats from new startups, such as Facebook, Twitter and the online deals company Groupon.

These companies have built their success on "social," the buzzword that defines the latest generation of Internet icons. Google, whose bread and butter is online search, hasn't been all that successful in building up the social side of its products.

The seven executives, all holding the title of senior vice president, are:

• Andy Rubin, its top mobile executive;

• Salar Kamangar, the head of video site YouTube;

• Sundar Pichai, who's in charge of the Chrome browser and operating system effort;

• Alan Eustace, senior vice president for engineering and research;

• Jeff Huber, senior vice president of commerce and local;

• Vic Gundotra, who leads social ventures; and

• Susan Wojcicki, who heads ads.

Some already had the senior vice president title before the latest change.

Ben Schachter, an analyst with Macquarie Capital, said the management changes are not surprising overall. But he said Page's decision to elevate "social" to make it a separate group on par with ads or search shows a clear concern over the threat from Facebook and others.

Google reports its first-quarter earnings Thursday.

Shares of Google, which is based in Mountain View, Calif., slid $1.84 to close Friday at $578.16.

Why Users Are More Engaged With Social Media on Fridays (Mashable)

Posted: 08 Apr 2011 03:58 AM PDT

Todd Wasserman Todd Wasserman – Fri Apr 8, 6:58 am ET

Rebecca Black's not the only one who thinks there's something special about Friday. Two separate pieces of research out this week show that the end of the work week is the best time to get traction on status updates and tweets.

Analyzing more than 200 of its clients' Facebook pages over a 14-day period, Buddy Media found that engagement on Thursdays and Fridays was 18% higher than the rest of the week, and that engagement was actually even better on Thursday than on Friday. Meanwhile, Twitter Chief Revenue Officer Adam Bain — speaking at the Ad Age Digital conference earlier this week — said that Twitter users are more engaged with tweets on Fridays.

The reason is fairly obvious, says Jeremiah Owyang, a partner at the Altimeter Group: "People are heading into the weekend so they're thinking about things besides work. They're mentally checking out and transitioning to the weekend."

Rick Liebling, director of digital strategy at Coyne PR, concurs: "It's a matter of people finally pushing past the work week and coasting toward the weekend, picking their head up a bit to see what's going on and what their friends are up to."

However, Liebling adds that there might be another factor at work: There may be fewer posts overall on Fridays, which means a greater number of average click-throughs.

Dan Zarrella, a social media scientist at HubSpot, agrees with that assessment. "I call it 'contra-competitive timing,'" Zarrella says. "As the overall activity seems to slow down from the hustle and bustle of the week, readers can give each tweet more attention because there are fewer other tweets fighting for it."

Whatever the case, the fact that Thursdays and Fridays are the best days of the week for engagement isn't yet common knowledge among marketers. As Buddy Media CEO Michael Lazerow also noted at the Ad Age Digital conference, most brands are similarly unaware that their status updates will get more pickup if they're posted after work hours.

But Owyang says that what's generally true may not be applicable to many marketers, anyway. For instance, "Friday may not be the best time for the B2B audience because they're checking out mentally." Similarly, Lazerow said that for movie companies, the weekend is the sweet spot, but for other media companies, Monday is the worst day of the week. "It's the noisiest time to post," Lazerow said.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Just_Human

Book a Better Hotel Room With Room 77 (Mashable)

Posted: 08 Apr 2011 04:06 PM PDT

Jennifer Van Grove Jennifer Van Grove – Fri Apr 8, 7:06 pm ET

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: Room 77

Quick Pitch: Room 77 is a hotel room database and search engine that helps travelers find great rooms.

Genius Idea: Room Request Guarantee, a coming-soon feature that will let users secure their preferred room when booking at a partner hotel.

/> Years ago, Brad Gerstner, now the founder of hotel-search startup Room 77, would maintain a running list of his favorite hotel rooms on his BlackBerry. Friends got wind of the list and started asking for copies, and Gerstner started thinking about the larger problem, a problem of information asymmetry: Hotel front desks have all the information on rooms, while the consumer has nothing.

It took years -- and countless hours with Gerstner and friends walking through hotel hallways and gathering floor information -- for the full Room 77 concept to materialize into a functional hotel room database and search engine. Today, travelers can turn to Room 77 to get the run-down on nearly half a million hotel rooms in 18 different cities.

Why might a traveler want access to this data? For starters, any frequent hotel visitor knows that each stay can vary drastically depending on room size, bed quality, balcony or view. Consumers often demand higher floors or rooms with views to circumvent bad experiences; but most often, guests are slotted into rooms as hotel clerks or computer algorithms see fit.

Room 77 is designed to give would-be hotel guests access to a combination of hotel-sourced and people-sourced room information so that they can book better rooms.

The site and companion iPhone app [iTunes link] return "Room Cards" matched to user preferences -- things like high or low floors, view importance and elevator distance. When the user selects a hotel, rooms are ranked and the best matching rooms are returned accordingly.

The user can select an individual room to get more details about the room, see where its located in the overall floor plan, take a glipse at the actual view with images sourced from Google and read the Room Card to gain insight into bed type, room square footage and other factoids. At two pilot hotels -- the Grand Hyatt Seattle and the Hyatt at Olive 8 in Seattle -- Room 77 users can now also click a beta "Look Inside" button to see photos inside each room.

As it stands, Room 77's greatest shortcoming is it merely solves the information asymmetry piece of the problem; it does little to help the customer book the specific room he wants. Users that find the perfect room can, however, hit the "Request a Room" option for tips on how to book their preferred room number.

The startup recognizes this manual process is far from ideal, it's working on another pilot product it calls "Room Request Guarantee." "It's the equivalent of picking your seat on an airline," vice president of product Kevin Fliess explains.

Room 77 is in talks with hotel partners and is making Room Request Guarantee a priority initiative for the year, says Fliess. There's also a revenue-sharing aspect to the feature, as Fliess believes that users will be open to paying an additional room fee to secure the rooms that they want.

Room 77's greatest asset is its technology platform, Fliess says. The startup uses patent-pending technology to turn raw, unstructured data into digital blueprints for hotels in a matter of hours. The technology piece is crucial to ensuring that the data flooding in from users via the iPhone app, hotel partners and even startup staff members who continue to troll hotel hallways, can be seamlessly transformed into an elegant way for users to consume hotel room data.

San Francisco-based Room 77 raised $3 million in Series A funding in April and now has a 20-person team with four PhDs, several travel industry veterans, a few former Googlers and one ex-Facebook employee on staff.

Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

Google's $700 million ITA buy cleared with conditions (AFP)

Posted: 08 Apr 2011 07:09 PM PDT

by Chris Lefkow Chris Lefkow – 1 hr 56 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Google's entry into the online travel sector was cleared for takeoff as the US Justice Department gave the green light to its $700 million purchase of flight data company ITA Software.

The Justice Department's anti-trust division, however, extracted a number of concessions from Google and imposed conditions on the Internet search giant to allow the controversial acquisition to go ahead.

The proposed legal settlement, which will need the approval of a US District Court, requires Google to notably develop and license ITA's travel software to other companies.

Several online travel sites, including Expedia, Kayak and Travelocity, had sought to block the Google-ITA deal, claiming it would give Google too much control over the lucrative online travel market and lead to higher prices.

The Justice Department agreed that unless modified, the acquisition "would have substantially lessened competition among providers of comparative flight search websites in the United States."

But US deputy assistant attorney general Joseph Wayland said the proposed settlement "promotes robust competition for airfare websites by ensuring those websites will continue to have access to ITA's pricing and shopping software.

"(It) assures that airfare comparison and booking websites will be able to compete effectively, providing benefits to consumers," Wayland said.

ITA, a 500-person firm founded in 1996 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology computer scientists, specializes in organizing airline data, including flight times, availability and prices.

ITA flight data software is used by many US airlines and a number of leading online travel sites, including Expedia's Hotwire and TripAdvisor, Kayak, Orbitz and Microsoft's Bing search engine.

Under the settlement, Google agreed to let ITA customers extend their contracts into 2016 and to let new customers license ITA's QPX software on "fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms" into 2016. Google also must offer ITA's next generation InstaSearch product to the sites.

Google is also barred from entering into agreements with airlines that would restrct sharing of seat and booking class information with its competitors.

In addition, Google will be required to build a "firewall" that will prevent it from gaining access to competitors' proprietary software which runs on ITA servers.

Google senior vice president Jeff Huber welcomed the approval of the deal and said "by combining ITA's expertise with Google?s technology we'll be able to develop exciting new flight search tools for all our users."

FairSearch.org, a coalition of opponents of the acquisition which includes Google rival Microsoft, welcomed the conditions imposed on Google.

"By putting in place strong, ongoing oversight and enforcement tools, the department has ensured that consumers will continue to benefit from vibrant competition and innovation in travel search," FairSearch.org said.

Another group, Consumer Watchdog, expressed concern that even with the conditions on the deal, Google will "ultimately win control of the travel search industry, driving ticket prices up for consumers."

Google has said the ITA acquisition will help it create new tools that will make it easier for consumers to search for travel, compare flight options and prices and drive more customers to online travel agencies. Google has said it has no plans to sell airline tickets or set airfare prices.

Google has drawn increasing government scrutiny as it has grown from a scrappy startup into the dominant player in Internet search and the ITA settlement marks the first time it will be subject to anti-trust supervision.

The US Federal Trade Commission reached a settlement with Google last week over Google Buzz, the social networking tool rolled out last year which spawned a slew of privacy complaints.

Under the settlement announced by the US regulator, Google is required to implement a comprehensive privacy program and will be subject to independent privacy audits every two years for the next 20 years.

Last month, a US judge dealt a setback to Google's plans for a vast digital library and online bookstore, rejecting a copyright settlement hammered out by the Internet giant with authors and publishers.

Google seals ITA deal but antitrust review looms (Reuters)

Posted: 08 Apr 2011 05:27 PM PDT

By Diane Bartz Diane Bartz – Fri Apr 8, 8:27 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Justice Department approved Google Inc's purchase of ITA Software with stiff conditions on Friday, and left the door open to a larger probe into whether Google manipulates search results to hurt rivals.

The decision, which allows Google to expand into the online travel market, comes as new CEO Larry Page revamped the company's management structure in a bid to accelerate efforts in social networking, mobile and other key businesses.

The Justice Department blessed Google's $700 million deal with the ticketing software company. Google promised to license the software for five years, to continue to upgrade it, and to establish firewalls to protect ITA clients' intellectual property.

The ITA buy is part of an acquisition and hiring spree as Google aims to ensure its online services stay on top as Internet surfers go mobile and turn to services like the wildly popular Facebook.

Now, U.S. antitrust regulators will turn to the question of whether to open a formal antitrust probe into allegations that Google, the world's No. 1 Internet search engine, manipulates search results, a source told Reuters on Friday.

The Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department are both contemplating an investigation but there has been no decision made on which agency may take it up.

There has been a series of complaints made to the agencies -- many from Google rivals that specialize in searches such as price comparison websites -- that Google has made them difficult to find.

A key lawmaker has been critical of Google, and remained so on Friday. "We continue to scrutinize broader questions about the fairness of Google's search engine, and whether it preferences its own products and services to the detriment of competitors," said Sen. Herb Kohl, chairman of the Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee.

The European Commission took up an antitrust probe after complaints from three small companies, one of them owned by Microsoft Corp. Microsoft filed a formal complaint against Google with the commission in Brussels last month.

Microsoft charged that Google hurt competition by "walling off" content on its YouTube site, so other search engines cannot display accurate results. It also said that Google made it hard for Microsoft's mobile phone software to show videos from YouTube, among other charges.

The Justice Department was also aware that Google had an incentive to tweak search results to favor its businesses and was keeping an eye on the issue, said a Justice Department official who requested anonymity.

"There were a variety of complaints about bias in search," the official said. "So, while we're aware of those complaints we did not think they were relevant to this (ITA) transaction."

Analysts said they believed that Google's power in search meant the company had to step carefully, and that a broader probe was a big worry.

"A lot of these new markets that they enter rely heavily on search to drive traffic," said Yun Kim, an analyst with Gleacher & Co. "That's what the government is worried about."

CONDITIONS PLACED ON GOOGLE BUY OF ITA

The regulatory scrutiny has added pressure to Google's stock at a time when investors are also concerned about growing competition from iPhone maker Apple Inc and social networking powerhouse Facebook.

Shares of Google are down about 10 percent from their 52-week high of $642.96 in mid-January.

On Monday, Google co-founder Page officially took the reins as CEO and quickly moved to streamline decision-making in key product groups such as mobile, social networking, search and its YouTube video website, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The changes give the executives leading the product groups a direct reporting line to Page and greater autonomy, the sources said.

Google said in July that it would buy ITA Software for $700 million in cash. The announcement sparked concerns that travel websites such as Kayak and TripAdvisor could be deprived of ITA's software.

ITA's QPX is used by leading airlines and travel distributors like Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Microsoft's Bing and Hotwire, among others.

Disputes between Google and the online travel websites -- for example over fees -- are to be submitted to arbitration, the Justice Department said.

Google said it was "excited" to get the deal approved, and would soon bring out a new travel search tool.

"We're moving to close this acquisition as soon as possible, and then we'll start the important work of bringing our teams and products together," wrote Jeff Huber, a Google senior vice president, in a blog post.

Google shares dipped 0.3 percent to close at $578.16 on Friday.

(Additional reporting by Alexei Oreskovic and Jeremy Pelofsky; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Matthew Lewis and Richard Chang)

Google adds smartphone 'check-in' deals (AFP)

Posted: 08 Apr 2011 06:09 PM PDT

– 2 hrs 52 mins ago

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Google has added a Latitude feature that lets people using iPhones or Android-powered smartphones get rewarded for loyalty to shops or restaurants.

The feature that Google rolled out across the United States late Thursday lets people unlock discounts by regularly using location-sharing Latitude applications to check in at a select set of establishments.

"Checking in lets you share the places that you visit and add context to your Latitude location for friends and family," Google Maps software engineer Douglas Graham said in a blog post.

"At the same time, you can keep a history of where you've been while gaining status at the places you visit the most."

Google partners included clothing stores of American Eagle Outfitters, RadioShack consumer electronics shops, and fast-food chains Quiznos and Arby's.

People can check-in places using location-sensing capabilities in smartphones, with deals improving as they advance from "Regular" visitors to "VIP" status and then "Guru" level.

Businesses involved with Latitude check-ins can create their own ranks for frequent visitors. For example, Quiznos has a "Champion of Taste" rank.

Information about the program and companies involved was available online at google.com/latitude/checkin.

In February, Google began letting smartphone users check into spots on the go as the Internet star jumped into the hot location-based services arena with Facebook, Foursquare and Gowalla.

The check-in feature was added to a Latitude service that lets people with GPS-enabled Android smartphones share their whereabouts with selected friends.

Facebook last year released a Places and Deals applications that let members use smartphones to share their whereabouts with friends and get rewarded with notifications regarding deals at nearby shops or restaurants.

Facebook Places marked the firm's first step into location-based services that have been catching on with the popularity of smartphones.

Not Just Generic-Brand iPads: These Android Tablets Stand Out (ContributorNetwork)

Posted: 08 Apr 2011 11:54 AM PDT

Jared Spurbeck Jared Spurbeck – Fri Apr 8, 2:54 pm ET
Contribute content like this. Start here.

Most Android tablet designers seem to have feature checklist dysfunction, and an unhealthy fixation on Apple's iPad.

The first "real" Android tablet (that shipped with the tablet version of Android, called Honeycomb) was the Motorola Xoom. And its main selling point seemed to be that it wasn't an iPad. Likewise, the Samsung Galaxy Tab's designers decided its big selling point would be that it came in three sizes. Besides that, both tablets can be best described as "like an iPad, but" slightly improved, hardware-wise. And unable to run the iPad's 65,000 tablet apps.

Two Android tablet manufacturers are making designs that stand out, though ... for one reason or another!

Asus: The shotgun approach

Asus, maker of the venerable Eee PC netbook, seems to have decided that what the tablet world needs is keyboards. Lots of them. That's why it's releasing the Eee Pad Transformer, which has an optional laptop keyboard-and-touchpad attachment, and the Eee Pad Slider, which is basically a small tablet with a slide-out keyboard.

There aren't too many specifics about the Slider yet, besides what was previewed at CES. As the Eee Pad Transformer's launch approaches, though, it's starting to look like Asus is going to at least some trouble to customize it. According to the product site, the keyboard attachment doubles as (in essence) a spare battery ... and the included Polaris Office apps and MyCloud virtual desktop will let you create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, and control a PC or Mac, respectively. Those are kind of neat, but I think it says something about the Transformer that its killer feature is that it can pretend to be a different device altogether.

HTC: "Quietly Brilliant"

In contrast, the 7-inch HTC Flyer tablet was designed from the start around something unique that the iPad 2 doesn't have: A pressure-sensitive stylus. And while there have been Windows PC tablets that used styli, this is the first time we've seen a modern Android tablet with a capacitive touchscreen, which also used such an accessory.

Of course, introducing a unique hardware feature is risky, since you can't be assured that app developers will take advantage of it. So the Flyer will ship with a deluxe version of HTC's Sense interface, that's packed with neat ways of using the stylus. You can annotate books, doodle on photos, or take handwritten notes that sync with the Evernote service. And between the HTC Watch videos and HTC's partnership with the OnLive streaming video game service, those who choose the Flyer over the iPad might not feel too bad about missing out on the iTunes store.

Worth buying?

I have a feeling that most people who buy Android tablets do so because they either love Android or hate Apple. One size doesn't fit all, though, and a unique feature that's not available on Apple's devices might help to draw people away from them.

Will the Transformer or Flyer win out? Only time will tell. In this market, though, "winning" for anyone other than Apple might involve catering to the long tail ... and these tablets look better-positioned than others to do so.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

Google's Page makes first changes to management (Reuters)

Posted: 08 Apr 2011 04:23 PM PDT

By Alexei Oreskovic Alexei Oreskovic – Fri Apr 8, 7:23 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Google Inc CEO Larry Page streamlined decision-making in six key product groups, including social networking and mobile, as the Internet search giant revs up efforts to compete with Facebook and Apple Inc.

Page, in his first major reorganization since taking the reins as CEO earlier this week, placed executives leading the groups directly under his supervision, eliminating management layers thought to slow product development, according to sources familiar with the situation.

Social networking chief Vic Gundotra, Android head Andy Rubin, Chrome senior vice president Sundar Pichai and Youtube head honcho Salar Kamangar have been given a direct reporting line to Page and greater autonomy, the sources said.

Also given a direct line to Page were search senior vice president Alan Eustace and advertising chief Susan Wojcicki, the sources said.

The management reorganization, one of the first moves by Page since taking the CEO baton from Eric Schmidt on Monday, signals the company's strategic priorities at a time when mobile gadgets and social media services redefine the way people use the Internet.

"The folks that you're seeing, which as part of the reorg have kind of come to the top, are sort of the core areas of the business that the company is focused on," said one source familiar with the matter.

For those groups, the source said, the idea is to have less of a "horizontal" management structure, in which decisions need to be approved across various departments.

Social networking, an area where Google has struggled to find the right touch, will have a much higher profile within the company.

"At least social is at the same table with Android and search and ads," said Stifel Nicolaus analyst Jordan Rohan. "Social is now a big part of the discussion."

Google is the world's No. 1 search engine and generated roughly $29 billion in revenue in 2010. But the company's position as the main gateway to online information is threatened by Facebook, whose 500 million members regularly use the service to chat about everything from music and movies to world events.

Google has had greater success in mobile with its Android smartphone software. In the three months ending in February, Android became the most popular smartphone software in the United States, ahead of Apple and Research in Motion, according to a recent survey by research firm comScore.

A Google spokesman confirmed that there had been a management reorganization at the company, but declined to provide details. The spokesman noted that it had been very clear when the CEO change was announced in January that Page was looking to streamline the way the company is run and to make clear lines of accountability.

Investors had predicted bold and aggressive moves by Page to whittle down red tape at Google, and a renewed focus on search, mobile and technological innovation, following a decade under the leadership of former CEO Eric Schmidt. But some feared Page, who cofounded Google while a computer graduate student at Stanford in 1998, would neglect the crucial CEO's task of managing the expectations of Wall Street.

The management changes at Google also come days after the departure of Senior Vice President of Product Management Jonathan Rosenberg, who according to the company had intended to leave in the next year or two regardless. Of the promoted executives, several had reported to Rosenberg.

Shares of Google closed Friday's regular session down 0.3 percent at $578.16.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic, editing by Matthew Lewis)

Sony to Launch Streaming Music on PSP (PC World)

Posted: 08 Apr 2011 05:00 PM PDT

Lisa Greim Lisa Greim – Fri Apr 8, 8:00 pm ET

The rumors are true: Music Unlimited, Sony's cloud-based streaming music service, will launch on the PSP platform April 14.

The Sony cloud platform, Qriocity, is remarkably similar to the Amazon music-in-a-cloud store announced March 29, and most likely the Google music-in-a-cloud store that's allegedly lurking in the wings.

"The heart of the offering here is that with the one account you can access this music on your TV, your PS3, your laptop, your Blu-ray player, and have your music follow you wherever you go, rather than having to download all of your music into a device and make that device go with you everywhere," Shawn Layden, executive vice president and CEO of Sony Network Entertainment, told Eurogamer last week. It's also a streamlined way to sell PSP users all kinds of digital stuff.

"The idea is to make your PlayStation ID your ubiquitous sign-on wherever you go and also allow you to trade off the same wallet," Layden added, "so you don't have to charge up different wallets here for that."

Already good to go on TVs, laptops, Blu-Ray players and the PlayStation3 console, Music Unlimited and its 6 million tunes will be accessible to PSP users via WiFi next week. It requires a PlayStation Network account, the handheld's latest firmware update (6.3.7) and a subscription ($3.99 a month, $9.99 for premium features) after a 30-day free trial.

Layden said Music Unlimited, and other services on Qriocity, will show up this year on Sony Ericsson's new Android devices, including the Xperia Play, then on the upcoming NGP, and ultimately Sony's Playstation Tablet we've been hearing so much about.

The real question is whether adding music on demand to the PSP and its successors will be enough to distract fickle gamers from Nintendo's shiny new 3DS.

Google Gets Green Light From Justice Department for Travel Acquisition (Mashable)

Posted: 08 Apr 2011 02:38 PM PDT

Jolie O'Dell Jolie O'dell – Fri Apr 8, 5:38 pm ET

Google's purchase of ITA Software, a travel and airline software company, has been given a thumbs-up by the U.S. Department of Justice -- with a few important stipulations.

The DOJ had subjected the deal to some eight months of scrutiny to determine whether the search giant's foray into travel and flight search might pose antitrust issues.

The sale was first made known to the public via media reports about a year ago, and Google confirmed the acquisition in July 2010.

ITA's flight search technology powers the company's public airfare search engine, Matrix. Its QPX airfare shopping system is used by airlines and travel distributors around the world, and the company is also offering a new airline passenger reservation system.

Since ITA's software powers many other businesses, the DOJ is requiring Google to continue "to develop and license travel software, to establish internal firewall procedures and to continue software research and development." QPX and ITA's other travel search products will continue to be licensed to other companies, even companies that might be competing with whatever travel search app or apps Google might introduce.

In this way, the Department hopes to keep competition for travel search fair. Department reps said that the original deal terms "would have substantially lessened competition among providers of comparative flight search websites in the United States, resulting in reduced choice and less innovation for consumers."

Joseph Wayland, Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division, said in a statement, "The Department of Justice's proposed remedy promotes robust competition for airfare websites by ensuring those websites will continue to have access to ITA's pricing and shopping software."

In a statement released Friday, ITA reps stated, "We will begin work immediately to close the acquisition and are committed to making the integration process as seamless as possible for our employees and customers. We are excited about joining forces with Google, and look forward to getting our teams together after close to start working on innovative new ways to make travel search easier."

Xperia Play supplies affected by earthquakes in Japan (Appolicious)

Posted: 08 Apr 2011 12:48 PM PDT

Security, collaboration updates for Android business users (Appolicious)

Posted: 08 Apr 2011 08:04 AM PDT

YouTube Live: The Makeover Continues (PC World)

Posted: 08 Apr 2011 03:27 PM PDT

Jeff Bertolucci Jeff Bertolucci – Fri Apr 8, 6:27 pm ET

Another sign that Google is positioning YouTube to compete with broadcast and cable TV, as well as other video-streaming services like Hulu and Netflix: YouTube Live, a new branch of the hugely popular video-sharing service, debuted on Friday.

As its name suggests, YouTube Live provides live-streaming events rather than the recorded videos found on the regular YouTube site.

"With over 2 billion views a day, it's easy to think about YouTube as a place to watch videos recorded in the past. But you've told us you want more--and that includes events taking place right now," Google managers Joshua Siegel and Christopher Hamilton wrote in a Friday post on The Official YouTube Blog.

The new live-streaming service includes YouTube Live, a home page where you'll find events streaming at this very moment, as well as information on events slated for today, tomorrow, and the next seven days. When you subscribe to one or more YouTube Live partners, you'll be notified of upcoming live streams on your YouTube homepage.

YouTube has streamed a variety of live events in the past, including musical events and cricket matches. But the new live channel is a more concerted effort to establish YouTube as a broadcast-style destination for real-time entertainment.

Initially, the live-streaming beta program will only allow select YouTube partners "with accounts in good standing" to stream live content on the site.

"The goal is to provide thousands of partners with the capability to live stream from their channels in the months ahead," wrote Siegel and Hamilton. "In order to ensure a great live stream viewing experience, we'll roll this offering out incrementally over time."

The New YouTube

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that YouTube plans to offer about 20 premium channels, each showcasing 5 to 10 hours of original, broadcast-caliber programming a week, by the end of the year.

Google's reported $100 million overhaul of its video-sharing service could position YouTube as a strong competitor to subscription-based streaming services such as Hulu Plus and Netflix, the latter of which recently announced plans to distribute original programming in addition to its usual fare of movies and TV episodes first shown elsewhere.

The addition of live programming might also give YouTube a competitive edge over Hulu Plus and Netflix, neither of which currently streams live events. As I've learned firsthand, one of the drawbacks of canceling cable TV service--particularly if you live in an area with poor over-the-air broadcast reception--is that it's often hard to watch real-time television programming, including sports and awards shows that aren't streamed live.

It remains to be seen whether YouTube--or more likely a premium version of YouTube--will become a subscription service like Hulu Plus and Netflix. Whatever happens, YouTube seems determined to move beyond its humble origins. After all, you can only watch cute cats dancing on pianos

so many times.

Contact Jeff Bertolucci via Twitter (@jbertolucci ) or at jbertolucci.blogspot.com .

Report: Apple Investigates Verizon IPad 2 Problem (PC World)

Posted: 08 Apr 2011 05:10 PM PDT

Nancy Gohring Nancy Gohring – Fri Apr 8, 8:10 pm ET

Apple is reportedly investigating complaints from iPad 2 owners who say they can't connect to Verizon's cellular network, according to a story on the All Things Digital blog on Friday.

Apple said a small number of iPad 2 users have connectivity issues with Verizon's 3G network and that it is investigating the problem, according to the story.

Verizon declined to comment, referring questions to Apple. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The story points to several pages of complaints from users on the online Apple support forum. The users say when they try to connect to the Verizon network, the device says it is searching but never connects. Several users say they have returned the tablets to Apple stores, and in some cases the issue has been temporarily fixed only to reappear later.

Others have swapped for a new tablet and discovered the same problem.

The iPad 2 went on sale in March and is available in a 3G version from both AT&T and Verizon.

Nancy Gohring covers mobile phones and cloud computing for The IDG News Service. Follow Nancy on Twitter at @idgnancy. Nancy's e-mail address is Nancy_Gohring@idg.com

BMC Supercharges IBM DB2 for Mainframes (PC World)

Posted: 08 Apr 2011 02:00 PM PDT

Joab Jackson Joab Jackson – Fri Apr 8, 5:00 pm ET

Exploiting recent hardware enhancements that IBM added into its System z mainframe servers, enterprise software provider BMC has updated its line of performance tuning products to help customers get more from the latest version of the DB2 database.

BMC has upgraded 23 of its mainframe service management applications so that they will support version 10 DB2 databases running on System z9 and z10 mainframe servers, noted Robin Reddick, BMC director of marketing for mainframe service management.

"Customers want to move to DB2 version 10 more quickly than they have wanted to for past releases of DB2 because of IBM's promise of cost reductions," Reddick said.

Recent System z servers have Integrated Information Processors (zIIPs), co-processors that can take over some of the processing from the main CPU, saving money for customers paying for their systems by MIPS (million instructions per second).

When IBM introduced version 10 of DB2 for z/OS in 2010, it promised customers that upgrading to this version would result in an automatic performance improvement of 10 percent, thanks in part to DB2's use of these co-processors. Even greater gains in performance would be possible, IBM promised, if the customer would be willing to do some fine-tuning of the system.

These BMC packages, some of which also use the zIIP co-processors, will help customers do this fine-tuning, Reddick said.

Among the packages that have been updated include BMC SQL Performance for DB2, BMC System Performance for DB2, BMC Database Administration for DB2, BMC Database Performance for DB2, and BMC Recovery Management for DB2.

For instance, SQL Performance for DB2, which roots out resource-hogging SQL queries, has been rewritten to run on the zIIP processor. "Of the tools a customer can have, typically the tuning and monitoring products have the highest overhead" for the CPU, Reddick said.

By moving the software to the zIIP processor, customers can run the product without using any of the CPU's main resources.

One BMC customer that may take advantage of the new set of tools is the Florida Hospital. The hospital system has about 42 back-office and medical applications relying on an instance of DB2 running on a Z-series mainframe. The database gets about 400 million calls a day.

The hospital is about to upgrade to DB2 version 10. A data warehouse will be the first application to use the new database. DB2 supports time-based data, which will allow the hospital to ask point-in-time questions.

"We can get day-by-day answers, which we never had the ability to do before," said Bob Goodman, the hospital's senior database administrator.

With the installation, the hospital will also deploy a number of the newly upgraded BMC products, such as MainView for DB2.

MainView will come in handy for troubleshooting the data warehouse, Goodman said. The data warehouse will field a lot of dynamic queries, or unique queries that haven't already been optimized for repeated use. "MainView gives the ability to actually look at dynamic SQL," Goodman said.

He explained that MainView, unlike most monitors he has worked with in the past, offers the option of saving a history of SQL calls and the paths they took through the system.

"With MainView, we can go back to [an earlier] connection and look at it. That is a productivity aid for us. We used to have to chase after and figure out what is wrong. Now we can see it," he said.

Joab Jackson covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Joab on Twitter at @Joab_Jackson. Joab's e-mail address is Joab_Jackson@idg.com

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IBM Jumps Into Cloud, Customers Tip-toe Behind (PC World)

Posted: 07 Apr 2011 08:20 PM PDT

James Niccolai James Niccolai – Thu Apr 7, 11:20 pm ET

In announcing its cloud computing services on Thursday, IBM stressed repeatedly that private clouds -- or those that exist behind the corporate firewall -- are as important to its strategy as those in the public realm.

It seems like a wise strategy, given that even the IBM customers brought to a company event here to showcase their cloud development efforts were either not using the public cloud at all, or still in the early stages with it.

Tony Kerrison, CTO at financial services firm ING, said his company is running "zero" applications today in the public cloud. Like other financial services firms, ING is heavily bound by regulatory requirements, as well as strict European Union rules about where its customer data can be stored.

Even putting e-mail in the cloud, which is first on Kerrison's wish list, will be "a challenge" because of the regulatory issues, he said in an interview at IBM's Cloud Forum in San Francisco, where IBM announced its latest public and private cloud offerings.

Carlos Matos, senior director for infrastructure management and systems integration at Kaiser Permanente, said his company "dipped our toes" into a cloud initiative this year. Scott Skellenger, senior director for global IT operations Illumina, a life sciences firm that provides genotyping services, declined to specify what applications, if any, his company is running in the cloud.

That's not to say IBM doesn't have plenty of customers using its cloud services. But it highlights the challenges of getting enterprise customers, especially in data-sensitive industries such as health and finance, to embrace public services.

IBM announced two tiers of cloud service at the event Thursday, under the umbrella name of the IBM SmartCloud.

One, the Enterprise service, is an infrastructure-as-a-service offering similar to those from Amazon Web Services. Customers can deploy Windows or Linux applications in IBM data centers and IBM says it will guarantee 99.5 percent uptime annually.

The other, Enterprise Plus, offers higher levels of security and a 99.9 percent uptime guarantee, plus the option to run virtual machines on dedicated hardware, rather than servers shared with other customers, and the option to use AIX as well Windows and Linux.

Enterprise Plus users also get more flexible management, security and availability options. IBM will manage just the hardware and hypervisors, for example, or almost any combination of the OS, middleware, application or entire business process.

"IBM is trying to go a step further than the standard cloud offerings already out there, in terms of security, reliability and availability," said IDC analyst Jean Bozman.

The SmartCloud services aren't entirely new -- IBM has offered them on a custom basis for some time. But it's the first time they are being widely offered as a listed product with a fixed menu of options, said Steve Mills, senior vice president and group executive in charge of IBM's software division.

Pricing wasn't immediately available, but some published reports said the basic Enterprise service is comparable in price to Amazon Web Services, or a little more expensive.

They service will compete with those from Hewlett-Packard, among others, which made its own cloud pitch last month. But while HP hasn't said when its offerings will appear, IBM said its Enterprise service is available now worldwide, and Enterprise Plus will follow later this year.

IBM is also offering the products behind the services as a hardware and software package that companies can deploy in their own data centers. It includes numerous Tivoli and Systems Director products, including Tivoli Service Automation Manager and Tivoli Provisioning Manager for Images.

Public and private clouds are "equally valid," Mills said. "There's nothing about the attributes that you can't implement inside a business," including provisioning new apps in a standard, automated fashion across a pool of virtual computing resources.

The biggest challenge for enterprises will be management, according to IBM, in particular the proliferation of virtual machines and software images. It hopes to distinguish itself from other cloud providers by the level of security and management it says it can offer.

"We see the proliferation of images happening at a rate that makes the proliferation of Intel machines look like it was happening in slow motion," said Robert LeBlanc, IBM senior vice president for middleware.

IBM officials played down the suggestion that they will be competing more directly with partners, such as telecommunications providers, who have been offering their own cloud software based on IBM software. Such "coopetition" is normal in the industry, Mills said.

Although ING isn't using a public cloud, it is deploying "utility" applications such as social media tools on a private cloud, Kerrison said. It has a mix of x86 and IBM Power systems, and the company uses IBM's Tivoli software to abstract the hardware underneath and manage all the servers "at a higher level," he said.

The ITIL best practices for IT are geared towards physical infrastructure, Kerrison noted, so ING has developed its own processes to ensure software stacks in its cloud are as standardized as possible. That makes them easier to manage, and also helps with software development lifecycles, he said: "Developers are clear when new stack releases are coming out. We treat our stacks really like a software release," he said.

ING has found that no single vendor can move a company through the whole process of virtualizing systems and building an internal cloud, Kerrison said.

"I'd recommend forming an ecosystem of partners that's right for your business," he said.

Skellinger, of the life sciences firm Illumina, said moving to the cloud requires greater "business acumen" in areas like contract management.

"Sometimes the skills you needed yesterday aren't going to be the ones you need tomorrow," he said.
at 9:32 PM

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