BRUSSELS, March 21 (Reuters) – Europe’s second-highest court will rule on Sept. 14 on Alphabet (GOOGL.O) unit Google’s challenge against a record 4.34 billion euros ($4.8 billion) EU antitrust fine levied for using its Android mobile operating system to squeeze out rivals. The judgment from the Luxembourg-based General Court comes 10 months after the world’s most popular internet search engine lost its fight in the same court against a 2.42-billion-euro penalty in another case. It has filed… Source link
Read More »Is Google’s domination of the internet finally over? Search me… | John Naughton
For seasoned users of the internet, the chronology of our era divides into two ages: BG and AG – before and after Google. The year 1998 marks the dividing line. Before then, as the web expanded exponentially, a host of “search engines” had attempted to provide searchable indexes to it. The best of them was AltaVista, which launched in 1995 and provided the first searchable, full-text database of the web via a simple interface. It was the engine that I and most of my colleagues used… Source link
Read More »Google’s Android app will finally let you delete the last 15 minutes of your search history
Google appears to be finally bringing the ability to delete the last 15 minutes of your search history to its Android app. Former XDA Developers editor-in-chief Mishaal Rahman said he was tipped about the feature seemingly rolling out, and a Verge editor has spotted the feature on their phone. We’ve asked Google if it can share any details about the rollout, but to check and see if you have it, open Google’s Android app, tap your profile picture, and look for the “Delete last 15… Source link
Read More »Google’s tweaking the Play Store to make it better for tablets and folding phones
Google is making some tweaks to the Play Store to make it easier for people with big screen devices to find apps that’ll take advantage of the display real estate. According to a post on its Developers blog, the company has some changes planned for how apps are ranked and promoted, how reviews are displayed, and the alert messages you might see if you’re browsing apps on a tablet, foldable, or Chromebook. In the post, Google says that it will update how the Play Store ranks and… Source link
Read More »Google’s deal with McLaren puts Android and Chrome on its 2022 F1 car, and in the garage
Season five of Formula 1: Drive to Survive could potentially include scenes of McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown smashing a Chromebook or Android tablet, Tom Brady-style, thanks to a new arrangement between the team and Google. In 2020, McLaren exited its deal with OnePlus that produced several powerfully-specced black and orange Android phones, but there’s no indication of a similar branding exercise coming to the Pixel series anytime soon. Instead, the new “multi-year” agreement… Source link
Read More »Google’s free hotel booking links arrive on Search and Maps
Google is expanding its free hotel booking links to show on Search and Maps, the company announced Wednesday. The company is also adding reporting capabilities, support for hotel rates in Google Business Profiles and rolling out Local Posts to hotels as well. Image: Google. Free hotel booking links expand to Search and Maps. In March 2021, Google started offering free listings within Google Hotel search. Now, the company is adding support for free hotel booking links… Source link
Read More »Lawsuit claims Google’s ‘Order Online’ button directs customers away from restaurants’ sites
Google is facing a lawsuit from a Florida restaurant chain owner that accuses the company of directing users to “unauthorized” Google-branded food ordering webpages, where it uses restaurants names “without their approval,” as first reported by Ars Technica. A copy of the lawsuit alleges Google employs “bait-and-switch” tactics by placing its “Order Online” button at the top of restaurants’ profile panels on the search engine. The large blue button redirects users to a
Read More »War and the app economy, Google’s Messages update, Telegram ‘TV’ – TechCrunch
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry continues to grow, with a record number of downloads and consumer spending across both the iOS and Google Play stores combined in 2021, according to the latest year-end reports. Global spending across iOS, Google Play and third-party Android app stores in China grew 19% in 2021 to reach $170 billion. Downloads… Source link
Read More »Google’s CTO of Android tablets sees tablet sales passing laptops ‘in the not too distant future’
After seemingly forgetting that Android tablets existed for a while, Google is suddenly very invested in the market. Android 12L is in development to support larger-screened devices, and one of the platform’s co-founders, Rich Miner, has rejoined the team with the title “CTO of Android tablets.” Now, speaking to developers during an episode of Google’s The Android Show, Miner explained the opportunity the company is seeing (via 9to5Google). Miner references the introduction of… Source link
Read More »Google’s Message app can now handle iMessage reactions, challenges Apple with new features – TechCrunch
Google is giving its default messaging app a big upgrade, the company announced today. The Messages app, which comes pre-installed on most Android phones, will gain a number of new features with the update. Most notably, it will address the long-standing issue where iMessage’s “Tapbacks” weren’t delivered as emoji reactions, but were rather sent as a separate message. It’s an annoyance that’s made chats between Android and iPhone users confusing, cluttered and far too… Source link
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