Odyssey Online

…CNN.com has an interesting piece on whether Google Wave and Google Buzz are destined to merge into one product, or whether they represent cross purposes with Google’s corporate structure…

…Charles Arthur has published a very interesting piece in The Guardian on Google’s algorithm. He argues that Google is its algorithm, and makes an interesting argument about what this means for the company at this point in time…

…today’s Onion is also featuring a brilliant parody on Google and that word which must not be uttered in Google’s presence (ergo, privacy…the Onion does feature adult language and themes…)

…AtlanticWire has gathered a number of articles about the gloves coming off and the lawyers coming out in Google v. Microsoft.  Just as intense as Canada v. U.S.A. Sunday (…okay the hockey game was a lot more fun…)

…also a short interesting piece from the Washington Post that makes a case for what Google had in mind with Google Buzz, and why they put it out before it was ready…

…while this article from PC World is largely about Microsoft, it does give current browser share numbers. In a word, more good news for Firefox and Chrome.

One of the real joys of Firefox are the add-ons. Recent news on new Youtube add-ons for Firefox has just come down the pipe…for an overview of Firefox add-ons see the notes for a presentation back a year or two ago, but still current in terms of the add-ons as concept, and the add-ons it covers.

For information on what Chrome is and how Google is positioning it to be a web-based operating system, see these powerpoint notes for a presentation I did last December. Even though it’s a powerpoint it will still provide commentary on what Google is up to (warning, some sardonic comments about Google along the way…)

…they might be going straight to the Bloody Mary’s in Mountain View.  Firstly there is the continued negative reaction and bad press surrounding Google Buzz (this is CNN’s version of the poison), and the Washington Post is reporting that the Google book settlement, amidst criticism from just about everyone, is back in limbo…

Karen Coyle has insightful commentary on the DOJ’s latest assessment of the Google Book Settlement…

…Google Buzz is certainly proving to be an interesting bee. It is Google’s social networking software that is built right into G-mail. This merging has been called Simple Genius and a Facebook killer (more on the killer stuff here).  However, no sooner did buzz leave the hive that it was discovered to have serious privacy problems, serious vulnerability to hackers…these issues chronicled here, here, and here.  My advice? Leave Google buzz until spring and read instead:

• Spring Without Bees: How Colony Collapse Disorder Has Endangered Our Food Supply by Bill McKibbon
• Buzz About Bees: Biology of a Superorganism by Jurgen Tautz
• A Keeper of Bees: Notes on Hive and Home by Allison Wallace
• Robbing the Bees: A Biography of Honey, The Sweet Liquid Gold that Seduced the World by Holley Bishop

Siva Vaidhyanathan is one of the most articulate and most provocative commentators on Google.  Recently on his blog, the Googlization of Everything, he has published a number of commentaries on the China hack of Google…long but well worth the time to read them, they make an interesting case that the situation is not a simply question of resistance to censorship, but rather the culmination of numerous complex legal, business, and security issues.

…reported by CNN, China responds to the allegations about hacking Google…

…couple of things on the situation between Google and China (what does it mean that I’m writing about Google like it was a country)…the Washington Post is reporting that Google’s decision comes on cyber-attacks launched against Gmail, and that these attacks “on Google that the search giant said originated in China were part of a concerted political and corporate espionage effort that exploited security flaws in e-mail attachments to sneak into the networks of major financial, defense and technology companies and research institutions in the United States.”

Also of note, Peter Fallows, who writes on a variety of topics for Atlantic Magazine and is a frequent commenter on China, writes of the implications of the Google v. China stand off here and here and here.  National Review lauds Google’s decision here, useful reading on what is really an interesting, and in some ways frightening situation.

…two good posts on Google’s decision to at least consider cutting off business with China.  Both are from Atlantic Online, one by Marc Ambinder on the immediate implications, and one by Derek Thompson on future implications.

…more soon, both men do point out that Google itself is not a transparent company and there is a lot to read into their decision/announcement…