Distorted photo of Michelle Obama removed from site

An altered photograph of Michelle Obama, which created an international controversy because it popped up as the first result on Google image searches, has been removed by the blog site that had posted it.

The blog, called "Hot Girls," this morning ran an apology in Chinese and in broken English.

The English version reads: "I am very sorry for this article, and that this is the program automatically issued a document from the article. Do not the subject of race and politics make the discussion too radical and sincere hope that the world is very peaceful."

The distorted photo had shown the first lady with monkey-like features. Google had declined to remove the site from its search indexing process, citing free-speech concerns.

-- David Colker

Google won't remove distorted Michelle Obama image from search engine

A crudely altered photograph of Michelle Obama, which often comes up as the first result on a Google image search of her name, will not be removed from the company's search process despite protests that the depiction is racist and repugnant.

"It's offensive to many people, but that alone is not a reason to remove it from our search index," Google spokesman Scott Rubin said. "We have, in general, a bias toward free speech."

The image, which depicts the first lady as having monkey-like features, is posted on a blog called "Hot Girls" without explanation. The blog post also contains several legitimate photographs of Michelle Obama. (The image is also posted on other sites that get high spots.) 

Although Google won't alter the search result process that places the offending image in top spots, the company placed a house advertisement above it with the headline, "Offensive Search Results." Clicking on the ad takes the user to a statement that says, "We assure you that the views expressed by such sites are not in any way endorsed by Google."

The statement apologizes "if you've had an upsetting experience using Google," but it states that a site is not removed from its process unless the content is illegal or violates the company's webmaster guidelines. Rubin said there was nothing in the guidelines that deals with this kind of imagery.

Google has posted similar statements in rare instances, most notably in 2004 when searches on "Jew" resulted in the top spot going to a virulently anti-Semitic site. Rubin said the statement is sometimes used in situations when there are "offensive search results on an innocuous query."

The "Hot Girls" blog has an additional Google connection: It was produced using Blogger, an online tool owned by the search company. And it resides on the Blogger platform, which provides online real estate for blogs and is also owned by Google.

Rubin said Blogger users have to adhere to the site's terms of service, but he was unaware of any language in that agreement that would affect the use of the Obama depiction.

A different website containing the same depiction was banned by Google several days ago, but only because the site was deemed to contain malware that could spread a virus or similar online malady. When a site is dropped from Google's index, the search engine will not present it as a result.

-- David Colker

Google teams up with TiVo to give advertisers a clearer picture

Google and TiVo have been responsible for a good deal of anxiety within cable and network television circles. Put both together in the same sentence, and you have the potential need for some serious psychotherapy.

Yes, the two Silicon Valley companies are teaming up. Google, which sells television and online ads, today said it agreed to subscribe to TiVo's user data.

Here's where the fear and loathing come in. Google promises that advertisers pay only when their ads are seen. But TiVo lets viewers fast-forward through commercials. Now, with TiVo's data, collected from millions of digital video recorders across the country, Google can tell exactly which of those commercials are being bypassed. If all the commercials are being skipped, the channel gets no money. It's easy to see why TV executives get heartburn over this.

Google currently has an agreement with EchoStar to sell ads on its Dish Network and collect similar data from the satellite TV company's subscribers.

Information is the stock and trade of Google, which distinguishes itself by its ability to tell advertisers how often their ads are seen. On the Internet, that's a relatively trivial trick to tally up "clicks" or "impressions." But that's harder for television.

"In general, the feeling is that TV needs more accountability for the audience it is delivering to advertisers," said Todd Juenger, vice president of TiVo's 4-year-old audience research business, said in an interview. "Right now, TV is kind of fuzzy. It is such a powerful medium, but it suffers from a lack of tools to measure its impact. We help to provide those tools."

Today, the 800-pound gorilla is Nielsen Co., whose TV show ratings determine how much networks can charge for ads on certain shows. But Nielsen focuses on how many people watch a given show.

Google, however, wants second-by-second feedback on whether people are watching ads and who is watching them. Through its deal with EchoStar, Google already processes more than 1 billion channel clicks a day to determine whether a client's ads are seen, at least by satellite TV customers.

"Now we have TiVo data to add breadth and depth," said Mike Steib, director of emerging platforms at Google.

Steib and Juenger are cautious to add that the data are "anonymized," so Google and advertisers cannot trace viewing behavior back to any individual.

They also argue that networks have little to fear. About 3 in 10 companies that buy TV ads through Google have never advertised on TV before, Steib said. "Our system makes it easy for people to buy TV ads," he said. "We're lowering the barriers to entry, which has the effect of growing the market."

Juenger delivered a similarly soothing message: "More and more marketing dollars are being directed to Internet and search largely because of the accountability those mediums offer. If you are confident that you’re getting what you’re paying for, you’re more inclined to pay. To the extent that we can do that for TV, that ought to stimulate demand."

In this economy, TV executives are likely to embrace anything that stimulates demand. Even Google and TiVo.

-- Alex Pham

Follow my random thoughts on games, gear and technology on Twitter @AlexPham.

Image courtesy of Dan Hontz.

Google gives first demonstration of its Chrome operating system

Google posted a video to explain its new operating system, Chrome OS, due out next year. Credit: YouTube.

Google's new Chrome OS operating system, which is designed to bypass computer hard drives and work totally by way of the Internet, got its first public preview today. 

The system, due out about a year from now, could eventually pose the first real competition for Microsoft's and Apple's consumer operating systems since the earliest days of home computers. Chrome's main difference is that applications and other materials that now exist on hard drive will instead live online.

It will be available, at least at first, only for the small netbook computers that use solid-state drives.

One of the main advantages of the operating system, as extolled by Google product manager Sundar Pichai, is speed. The entire online system popped up on the screen of a demonstration computer less than 10 seconds after rebooting.

Pichai compared it to hitting the "on" button of a TV. "You turn it on, and you should be on the Web," he said in a press conference webcast from company headquarters. 

Not surprisingly, the on-screen interface of the operating system looked much like a browser. On top were tabs showing programs for e-mail, documents, a chess game, a book e-reader and more.

Pichai showed how panels that popped up from the bottom of the screen (around Google, they've been nicknamed "moles") can be used to play music, instant message or show a quick video while browsing the Web or doing work.

The aim for consumers, Pichai said, is simplicity.  "We just want computers to be delightful and work," he said.

One of the keys to Chrome OS' success likely will be how much users can actually do with it, given that it won't be using much of the software in common use now. To that end, Pichai announced that, as of today, the company was making the system's computer code public so that outside developers could start making applications for it.

Google released an animated video on YouTube (which it owns) to explain Chrome OS to the public.

-- David Colker

Google Maps' Street View under Swiss scrutiny

Google Map's Street View of Hollywood Boulevard near Highland Avenue. Credit: Google Inc..

Internet search giant Google is facing court action in Switzerland because it isn’t meeting the country’s demands for tighter privacy protection with its Google Maps' Street View service, according to a Swiss government official.

Hanspeter Thuer, data protection commissioner, announced today in a statement that he plans to bring a suit against Google in the Federal Administrative Tribunal, according to an Agence France Presse report.

Thuer said Google rejected many of his recommendations after it went online in August.

Street View is a feature that lets users pick a point on a map and see a panoramic street-level image of the surroundings. By adjusting the location of the point, a user can take a virtual walk down the street. Google constructs the images from panoramic photos taken by cars it has equipped with cameras.

Faces had not been sufficiently blurred, and people were concerned about being shown near "sensitive locations, for example outside hospitals, prisons or schools," he said.

Google argues that it provides measures to protect privacy by making it possible for people to contact Google and ask to have pictures of their property removed from Street View. The company also said it spoke with privacy regulators and gave them an opportunity to raise questions.

“We’re proud of the blurring technology we’ve developed for Street View, and are confident the product is completely legal, but we wanted to go the extra mile to address Herr Thuer’s concerns,” the company said in a blog post.

Google ran into a similar problem in the U.S. this year when a Pennsylvania couple took the company to court, saying the feature was an invasion of privacy. A judge threw out the case in February, siding with Google, which said "complete privacy does not exist" and argued that photos and building plans of the couple's home were already available to the public on local government websites.

In the blog post, Google indicated it planned to fight the Swiss case as well: “We will vigorously defend Street View in court and we’re committed to continue bringing the benefits to Swiss users.”

-- W.J. Hennigan

Google launches flu shot locator

Advertising for flu shots at a clinic in New York. Credit: Spencer Platt / Getty Images

Feel a fever coming on?

Now that flu season is in full swing, people are scrambling for a vaccine. And the rush is even more hectic because of the H1N1 scare.

To deal help with the high demand, Google Maps has launched a flu shot finder at google.com/flushot. It provides users with the locations of clinics that provide seasonal and H1N1 vaccines.

The site works like Google Maps. Enter a ZIP Code or the name of a city and the closest sites will pop up. Clinics offering H1N1 shots are blue. Those offering seasonal shots are red. And those providing both are half red and half blue.

Google worked in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as the Department of Health and Human Services on the project. The locater will eventually be linked on www.flu.gov and the American Lung Assn. website.

Be aware that many locations that are shown on the site are currently out of stock, Google said. So make sure you call ahead.

-- W.J. Hennigan

Google bets big on mobile advertising in $750-million acquisition of AdMob

Google Inc. has shown which way it believes the winds are blowing by forking over $750 million for mobile advertising firm AdMob, one of the Web giant's largest acquisitions to date. 

As AdMob itself has described, the volume and effectiveness of mobile advertising has been skyrocketing over the last several years as more advanced smartphones have caught on, making it easier to deliver more kinds of graphical and text-based advertising to phone-toting consumers.

In a recent report, AdMob said that the number of mobile ads it served had increased nearly 540% from September 2007, to 10.2 billion per month from 1.6 billion.  

As mobile phones morph further into pocket Internet devices, and consumers grow accustomed to performing online functions like search, gaming and instant messaging on their handsets, opportunities for advertising companies like Google will grow rapidly, analysts expect. 

Google says the number of searches performed by smartphone users has increased by a factor of five over the last two years, led primarily by iPhone users and owners of Google Android phones. At least a dozen new Google-powered phones, such as last week's launch of Verizon's Droid, are expected to be released in the coming year.  

Google also says that marketer spending on mobile advertising is growing at 30% annually.

AdMob was founded in 2006 by Omar Hamoui, a Web entrepreneur looking to generate traffic for his mobile-based website. The company has taken funding from venture firms such as Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners and Northgate, and the company's clients have included Ford, Coca-Cola, Electronic Arts and Paramount Pictures.

Google, which already owns a major stake in mobile advertising with its DoubleClick Mobile unit, said it expects regulatory scrutiny of the AdMob deal but hopes the pact will be approved within a matter a months.

-- David Sarno

Motorola's Droid review: It's the best phone on Verizon

We're getting this out of the way now: Motorola's Droid is the best Google phone on the market.

Maybe that's not saying a whole lot. The Droid's only competitors in the U.S. are T-Mobile's 1-year-old G1, its chubby younger brother the MyTouch 3G and HTC's Droid Eris, a $99 Verizon Wireless phone that comes out Friday -- the same day as the Motorola Droid -- with an already-outdated Android operating system.

Here's another one: Droid is the best phone on Verizon.

As we wrote last week, the Droid marks a notable shift for the nation's largest carrier. Verizon -- often renowned for its service, not its selection of phones -- seems to be wisely minimizing its interference with handset makers.

What we get is an attractive and fast smart phone packed to the brim with features for $199 (with a two-year contract).

The Droid hardware is a technical feat. It has a 5-megapixel camera with a flash that doesn't perform exceptionally well but still pretty great for a phone. The speaker is pleasantly loud. The touch-screen screen is gorgeous -- larger than the iPhone's with way more pixels per inch.

Oh, and it has a keyboard.

Google's 'Dashboard' allows users some insight into which data the company stores

Google has unveiled its 'Google Dashboard' service, a page where users can get a sense of the data the company stores about them in any of 23 different Google-run services. 

As questions about how the company uses consumer data continue to mount, Google has tried to answer those concerns by allowing users a clearer view into how their data is stored and used by programs like Gmail, YouTube and Google Docs.

"We think of this as a great step towards giving people transparency and control over their data, and we hope this helps shape the way the industry thinks about these issues," Alma Whitten, a Google  engineer who works on Privacy and Security, said in a statement.

The Dashboard is essentially a page listing each service that stores data, along with which types of data it stores. Rather than allowing users to control and edit their data directly from the page, however, Dashboard refers users to other pre-existing settings pages. In that sense, the Dashboard is a consolidation of existing functions, not a new set of tools by which users can control their data.

And though much of the concern about Google's data storage revolves around precisely how and what the company does to analyze and profit from user information, the Dashboard offers little insight into those domains. It does not specify which services keep user data, or for how long. Neither does it alert users that, for instance, their Web search histories and e-mails are constantly scanned for the purposes of selling products to them and others.

But users should expect that most or all of their data could be used for advertising, Google said. "To most folks, I think that there is a general expectation that even when we launch a product that doesn't have a clear business model associated with it, there's a possibility that advertising could be associated in some way," said Shuman Ghosemajumder, Google's business product manager for Trust & Safety.

Google said it would continue to add features to the Dashboard, and that services that were not included in the first iteration -- Analytics, AdWords, AdSense, and Book Search among others -- would be added in later versions.

-- David Sarno

Searching for an improved online shopping experience? Google has a new plan

Google offered this example of how an online store using Google Commerce Search could look, with searchable products sortable by category, color, size or price. Credit: Google.

Just in time for the holidays, Google Inc. took the wraps off a new business, one designed to help big online retailers make their websites easier to search.

With Google Commerce Search -- a service that will cost retailers $50,000 or more for an annual subscription -- the Internet giant will set up a search function on an online retailer's website, which Google says will dramatically improve user experience and drive sales. The product represents a challenge to Google's archrival Microsoft Corp., as well as to Oracle Corp., Endeca Technologies Inc. and other firms that run retailers' websites.

The main selling points are that everything that has made Google a dominant company -- vast computing resources, algorithms that provide right results, and even the ability to fix your typos and find what you're looking for -- will help people navigate clunky retail websites that cause a major stumbling block to sales.

"Search was the most important aspect of an e-commerce experience," said Nitin Mangtani, a lead product manager at Google. People go to a website looking to buy, say, a laptop, and they search the site for the item they want. "If the users are able to find that laptop easily, they are more likely to buy the product," Mangtani said. "If it takes them eight to 10 seconds, and they can't find it easily, they leave the website."

Whereas people have high expectations, websites weren't delivering, so Google saw an opportunity, the company said.

Search engine analyst Greg Sterling said...