Google's Moves: China, Broadband, Buzz And More
Google Buzz, introduced last week, drew criticism for mixing social networking with the private inboxes of Gmail users. Screenshot of Gmail.com hide caption
In this week's segment of All Tech Considered we discuss the many moves of Google, a company that seems to announce new products and services daily.
The company made news over the last week on several fronts, including its business in China, the introduction of a social networking service called "Google Buzz" and Google's plans to bring ultra-fast Internet service to a limited number of communities.
Here are some of the highlights in The Week In Google:
- On Friday, Google's co-founder Sergey Brin said he's optimistic Google will keep doing business in China and even expects the company may make some progress on the censorship front in the next year or two.
- China says it's fighting off hackers itself, but some are skeptical that the attacks against Google and other companies last month is being dealt with appropriately.
- Google also said last week it will roll out very limited 1-gigabit-speed Internet service for about 50,000 to 500,000 customers. Pittsburgh and Seattle have expressed interest in landing these gigabits. We're also hearing interest in the Austin/Round Rock area.
- How fast is 1-gigabit? It's 1,000 times faster than some of the lowest DSL Internet service tiers and 100 times faster than the 10-12 megabit speeds many of us enjoy. Tom's Hardware gives you an idea of what 1-gigabit is like if you set it up within your home while you wait for Internet service to match.
- Last week, Google rolled out Google Buzz, but over the weekend made some tweaks to fix bugs and address privacy concerns. Google says it's continuing to listen to feedback and make tweaks to Buzz.
- Buzz feels a lot like Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed. Here's a comparison of the four services.