US search engine giant Google is planning to introduce Android-based television software in May which will enable the users to access television through Internet. The new software, designed to open set-top boxes, TVs and other devices to more content from the internet, is attracting interest from partners that include Sony Corp, Intel Corp and Logitech International SA, which are expected to offer products that support the software, according to people familiar with the matter. However, none has so far discussed the efforts publicly, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Google, of Mountain View, California, is currently planning on sharing some details about the technology with more than 3,000 developers expected to attend its conference in San Francisco on May 19 and 20. One person familiar with the matter cautioned that the company could also decide to delay discussing it until the technology is more mature. Google uses the annual conference to showcase a range of technologies of interest to developers. The decision to address developers suggests that the internet giant may be hoping to kick-start a race to build applications for its TV platform, much in the same way that Google, Apple Inc. and others have courted developers for smartphones. The app-store approach has already begun to gain traction among some players in the TV market, too, aided by the advent of TVs, Blu-ray players and other hardware with internet connections. Read the rest of this entry »

Google Inc closed its China-based search service and began redirecting web searchers to an uncensored portal in Hong Kong on Tuesday. Though part of China, Hong Kong with its semiautonomous status due to its past history as a British colony, and Google is not legally required to censor results there. The company said it intends to continue research and development in China, as well as maintain a sales staff there, even after closing Google.cn and rerouting traffic to the unfiltered search site in Hong Kong. China reacted to the move by saying Google was “totally wrong” and had “violated the written promise it made on entering the Chinese market”. The Chinese government on its part denied involvement in Internet hacker attacks said to have generated from China and defended its online. The USA had urged Beijing to investigate complaints of cyberintrusions, after Google complained its site was hacked from China, especially endangering the emails of human rights activists in Tibet and Xinxiang.

The standoff that began on January 12 culminated with “Welcome to Google Search in China’s new home.” displays to search results in the simplified Chinese characters that are used in mainland China. However, the results can’t all be accessed inside China, because government filters restrict the links that can be clicked by mainland audiences. The Chinese-language version of Google search in the US as well as the mapping and music services on Google.cn have been untouched. The Chinese government has reacted by threatening to block access to Google’s other services, such as YouTube, which is owned by Google and social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter. The tensions with China have prompted Google to delay plans to sell some new wireless phones running on its mobile software. David Drummond, Google’s top lawyer said “Figuring out how to make good on our promise to stop censoring search on Google.cn has been hard. We want as many people in the world as possible to have access to our services, including users in mainland China, yet the Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a nonnegotiable legal requirement.”

Before 2006 Chinese users could search through Google sites such as Google.com, although filters inside China kept people there from clicking through to links generated by queries such as “Tiananmen Square massacre”, “Dalai Lama”, “Uighur”. But when Google tried to better reach Web users in China by setting up Google.cn, it meant complying with rules requiring the omission of search results the government deemed subversive or pornographic. But this compliance sparked criticism by Google supporters, including some of its own employees, who believed the company was violating its “Don’t Be Evil” motto. The worlds largest internet search company vowed to shake loose from government-imposed restraints on the Internet; after it determined that Google and more than 20 other US companies were targeted in computer hacking attacks originating from China. Although Google never made a direct accusation the Chinese government role was

Google had earlier hoped to persuade China to let it run a search engine that could deliver unrestricted results; failing that wanted a common ground to maintain its research center and sales team in the country. Google which earned US$250 million to US$600 million from China said its decision to re-route traffic to an uncensored Hong Kong site for users in mainland China is ‘entirely legal’; but China issued a blistering public attack on Google through a high-profile Communist Party newspaper. It seems by challenging Chinese government, Google appears to have violated an unspoken rule of doing business in China, especially in the Internet industry where Beijing feels its crucial to maintaining its authoritarian rule. This has resulted in realignments of business. Tianya.cn, a popular portal with 32 million registered users, said it was taking full control over social networking and question-and-answer services operated jointly with Google. China Unicom Ltd., one of China’s biggest mobile phone companies, hinted that it would shelve plans to offer two cell phones made by Motorola and Samsung with Google’s Android program. Publicly, Google’s continuing to work with its Chinese business partners by providing them with censored search services in an effort to abide by already existing contracts.

The U.S. State Department meanwhile has said it was not involved in Google’s decision over its search engine, and championed for internet freedom. This has added to Beijing’s concerns about collusion and aggravated recently tense U.S.-China relations. With growing pessimism in the US and European business community that Beijing was closing off access to the domestic market, Google is likely to face a tough road ahead to rehabilitation in the China market.

One of world’s leading social-networking website Facebook has passed Google to become the most visited website in the US. According to industry tracker Hitwise, Facebook started by Mark Zukerberg in 2004 finished the week ending March 13 as the most visited site in US. Heather Dougherty, Director-research (Hitwise) said it’s a important milestone with Facebook enjoyed a 185% increase in visits in the same period, over Googles’ 9% increase in the same time. However it does not include Google websites such as social-networking website Orkut started by Orkut Büyükkökten in 2004, or the popular Gmail email service, YouTube and Google Maps.

Together, both Facebook.com and Google.com accounted for 14% of the US Internet visits last week. However David Drummond, SVP-Google said “We are at a critical point in the future of the internet. All of us have a choice. We can allow repressive policies to take flight and spread across the globe, or we can work together against such challenges and uphold the fundamental human right to free expression.” It may be known that Google has added the social-networking feature Buzz to its Gmail service as well as new message inbox that echoes Gmail’s format, to reposition itself from challenges faced from Facebook.com and micro-blogging site Twitter.com.

According to online tracking firm, comScore; Facebook boasts some 400 million users while Gmail had 176 million unique visitors in December, 2009. Google, meanwhile has taken measures to limit online free expression, in 40 countries. It may be known that Google and YouTube services are or have been blocked completely in 25 countries.