Tag Archives: Google

A secret deal struck between Google and Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is being investigated by antitrust regulators in the European Union and Britain for potentially undermining competition in the multibillion-dollar digital advertising market. The inquiry, which was announced on Friday by the European Commission and U.K. Competition and Markets Authority, is the latest effort to scrutinize the business practices of the world’s largest technology companies. The regulators said the… Source link

A 3D printed Facebook’s new rebrand logo Meta is seen in front of displayed Google logo in this illustration taken on November 2, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Files Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register BRUSSELS/LONDON, March 11 (Reuters) – European Union and British antitrust authorities launched parallel investigations on Friday into a 2018 online display advertising deal between Google and Facebook, adding to a long list of regulatory challenges facing the… Source link

Google and Meta are being investigated by antitrust regulators in the EU and UK over “Jedi Blue” — a deal between the two firms that critics say allowed them to block smaller tech companies from gaining a foothold in the online ad market. In a press statement, the European Commission said it was concerned that the September 2018 agreement “may form part of efforts to exclude ad tech services competing with Google’s Open Bidding programme, and therefore restrict or distort… Source link

When I recently Googled “best toaster” on my phone, thinking about replacing the appliance in my apartment kitchen, the search immediately yielded a carrousel of images of products from various high-design brands: Balmuda, Hay, Smeg. (Guilty: I had definitely searched for the Japanese Balmuda’s steam-enabled toasters before.) Lower down on the results page were ads for online retailers such as Amazon and Wayfair, then another carrousel of “Popular Toasters” with user-review… Source link

Android users in Ukraine will get air raid alerts directly on their phones before expected attacks happen near them, Google announced today. In an updated blog post, the company said it’s working with the Ukrainian government to roll out an alert system for Android phones in the country. The feature was first spotted by XDA-Developers. “Tragically, millions of people in Ukraine now rely on air strike alerts to try to get to safety,” Google says in the announcement. The Android pings… Source link

For Android users, this could be the end of parking tickets as we know them. At least, that’s the promise Google makes with its latest update. Google announced Thursday a slew of new features that rolled out through its latest software update, including the ability for users to pay for parking using their voice through a partnership with ParkMobile. The goal is to help drivers eliminate the pain points of paying at the meter when it’s too cold, a meeting runs… Source link

Google is starting to introduce a rapid Air Raid Alerts system for Android phones in Ukraine, the company announced on Thursday. The new feature is the tech giant’s latest update on its response to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. “Tragically, millions of people in Ukraine now rely on air strike alerts to try to get to safety. At the request, and with the help, of the government of Ukraine, we’ve started rolling out a rapid Air Raid Alerts system for… Source link

As the war in Ukraine continues, companies as varied as Exxon, Visa, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola have suspended sales in Russia. Tech companies like Adobe, Apple and PayPal have joined in over the last couple of weeks. We queried the world’s top cloud infrastructure vendors (including Amazon, Microsoft, Google, IBM and Cloudflare) to find out how each was reacting to Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Each company let their public blog posts stand as the message they… Source link

Google has signalled it’s dialling up efforts around portability, announcing a plan yesterday to spend $3 million and “hundreds of hours” of its engineers time over the next five years to build on existing (sometimes very long-standing) initiatives in this area, such as the 2018 open source Data Transfer Project (DTP) to which Google is a contributor. The move comes at a time when lawmakers in multiple jurisdictions are paying increased attention to barriers that prevent service… Source link

Google Photos’ portrait blur feature on Android will soon be able to blur backgrounds in a wider range of photos, including pictures of pets, food, and — my personal favorite — plants. It’s one of a host of updates coming to Google’s apps and services on Android, which also includes tweaks to Google TV, a new screen time widget, and wider deployment of a Gboard feature that helps improve your grammar. Google Photos has previously been able to blur the background in photos of… Source link