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Want a Set of Gmail-Themed Stickers? You’re In Luck!

Alex Castle — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:48:22 -0600

We don’t know how we’ve managed to live this long without a set of vinyl Gmail stickers for our computer. Finally, our prayers have been answered, and Google’s offering to give away these priceless keepsakes for free. Just send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the address at this page, and you’ll get back a set of Gmail stickers.

The stickers include the Gmail “mvelope” icon, a set of Gmail hotkey reminders to stick on your keyboard, and one of three (collectible!) nameplate stickers. You’d better hurry, though, because knowing the way us nerds snap up anything Google or pseudo-ironic, these suckers are probably going to go fast.

Is anyone else as excited to receive your Google stickers as we are? Let us know in the comments. And if anyone gets the unicorn faceplate, hold onto it—we’ll trade you.

DOJ was 3 Hours from Filing Google Antitrust Suit

Paul Lilly — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 10:42:28 -0600

A search ad deal between Yahoo and Google announced back in June might have helped dramtically change Yahoo's fortunes. The company said it would generate $800 million from the proposed deal, and $250 million to $450 million in incremental operating cash flow within the first year. Instead, Yahoo made nothing from the deal, because Google pulled out amid fears of a protracted antitrust suit.

Those fears were very much justified, as we've now learned that the U.S. Department of Justice was a mere three hours away from filing the inevitable suit, according to Sandy Litvack, the lawyer hired by the Justice Department.

"We were going to file the complaint at a certain time during the day," Litvack said in an interview with American Laywer's AmLaw Daily. "We told them we were going to file the complaint at that time of day. Three hours before, they told us they were abandoning the agreement."

It's hard to tell whether or not Google made the right decision, but from Litvack's standpoint, he admitted to being "pretty confident" in the government's case.

Gmail Hits the (Google) Desktop

Andy Salisbury — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:40:35 -0600

Those of you that use Google Desktop know it’s capable of some pretty cool things. It’ll quickly search all the information on your computer, check the weather in your location (looking outside is so 1990), and now you can even check your Gmail – all right from your desktop.

The new gadget, released just this week will allow you to read, send, search and star your email messages from your desktop. It’ll also link up with your Gmail account’s contact list and auto-complete anyone you might be trying to send email to. It should also be noted that it’ll only take up as much screen real estate as you want it to. You can resize the window to show as many or as few messages as you want.

If you’re new to Google Desktop, they’ve included this gadget in the latest download available right from Google. If you’re already a user, be sure to check out the gadgets page to download it. Either way, it’s pretty snazzy and worth checking out!

Firefox Market Share Breaks 20%

Andy Salisbury — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:08:21 -0600

What was once a cult classic has finally hit the big-time – Mozilla’s Firefox web browser (the one that you’re possibly using right now!) has finally broken 20% market share amongst all web browsers. This move dropped Microsoft’s Internet Explorer down to roughly 70%.

Thanks to some data published by Net Applications, we’ve got some exact numbers regarding this matter. Official information for the month of November list Firefox with 20.78% of the market share, up from 19.97% in October. Internet Explorer is now holding only 69.77% of the share, with Apple’s Safari holding a respectable 6.57% and third place. Google’s fancy new flagship browser has been moving fast, hurdling over Opera’s 0.71%, with their own share of 0.83%.

If you’re one of the many that have downloaded, and use Firefox on a regular basis, good for you! I’m sure they’re grateful for the help. If you haven’t given it a whirl yet, there’s never been a better time. It’s a mighty solid platform that’s worthy of your download.

Microsoft Might Be Looking To Acquire Yahoo Search

Justin Kerr — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 21:20:39 -0600

Microsoft and its Windows Live brand has tried everything, right down to paying users to pry market share from search juggernaut Google, but so far nothing has worked. Popular rumors have even began speculating that the Redmond based software giant may be attempting to rebrand its search service. If this turns out to be true however, will Kumo or Yahoo Live be the new brand surging out of the gate? According to The Times of London, Microsoft is in talks again with Yahoo to acquire its search business for an estimated $20 billion dollars. AOL CEO Johnathan Miller and former Fox Interactive President Ross Levinsohn are reportedly heading up the negotiations.

So far Microsoft has declined to comment on the article and certainly, there is no guarantee that even if talks are in progress, that any agreement could be reached. Presumably however, the fact that Yahoo stockholders are faced with a share price of $11.51, down from a 52 week high of $30.25 might have put them in a slightly more agreeable mood. And now that Google has backed off and Jerry Yang is stepping down as CEO, who knows what the future holds. Steve Ballmer in the past has described the prospect of a search partnership with Yahoo as “an interesting possibility” but again, it’s too early to speculate on the outcome.

Will Yahoo search really benefit Microsoft? Hit the jump and let us know what you think.

Customize Your Google Searches with SearchWiki

Mark Edward Soper — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 11:00:50 -0600

If you've been resisting getting a Google account, you might not be able to resist this one: set up a Google account and you can use Google's new SearchWiki to customize your search results.

When you use Google after signing in, the normal Google search results include three new icons next to each listing that customize your personalized search results:

Click the Up-arrow (Promote) button to move the search result to the top of your results
Click the X (Remove) button to delete the result
Click the Comment bubble to attach a note for the result

At the bottom of each search page, you have these additional options:

Add a result: type in the URL for a site you want to add to your search result
See all my SearchWiki notes: displays all the comments you've added
See all notes for this SearchWiki: displays all comments added to the search results by all users
Learn more: opens the SearchWiki answer page

SearchWiki is intended to give you the ability to fine-tune your search results and eliminate irrelevant or obsolete results. However, some critics are worried about how SearchWiki works. To find out what they're concerned about, join us after the jump.

Google Rebuffs Claims of Gmail Security Hole

Paul Lilly — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 09:25:54 -0600

Earlier in the week, reports of a supposed newly discovered Gmail vulnerability started making the rounds on the web. The proof of concept was first posted on GeekCondition.com and showed how a hacker, with a bit of effort and persistence, could potentially infiltrate a user's Gmail account, create a malicious filter to forward emails to the hijacker, and top it off by stealing any domains the victim may have registered. But is the proof of concept truly indicative of a security flaw in Gmail?

While it's true that there have been users affected by the scheme, Google ascertains the root cause has more to do with phishing than it does with Gmail.

"With help from affected users, we determined that the cause was a phishing scheme, a common method used by malicious actors to trick people into sharing their sensitive information," Google wrote in a blog post. "Attackers sent customized emails encouraging web domain owners to visit fraudulent websites such as 'google-hosts.com' that they set up purely to harvest usernames and passwords. These fake sites had no affiliation with Google, and the ones we've seen are now offline."

As is often the case when it comes to security issues, a combination of common sense and safe computing habits remains your best defense.

Extensions for Google Chrome Coming, Detailed in New Developer Design Doc

Paul Lilly — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:47:41 -0600

Just a few months ago, we could have summed up the browser wars in single word: BORING! That's not to say we haven't appreciated the new features that accompany each new release of Mozilla's Firefox and Microsoft's Internet Explorer, but the results and the competitors always remained the same. It's become far too easy to predict how each new round will go - Firefox will add new features, get a little faster, and inch ever so closer in market share, while each new IE release will suck a little less than the last and continue to be the most widely used browser on the planet. At least in the chip wars, AMD and Intel have taken turns putting the smackdown on one another accompanied by the occasional trash talk.

It took a surprise release by an unlikely newcomer to finally get us excited about the future of browsers again. Google's Chrome seemingly came out of nowhere and has the potential to turn what has been a stale two-man scuffle into a three-way battle royal. Along with greater stability, Chrome's claim to fame is that it can render web pages faster than the competition, and indeed a recent benchmark comparison has pegged Chrome as the new speed king. But in order for anyone to truly take Chrome seriously, Google has to put extension support at the forefront of development, and it appears they're doing exactly that.

Hit the jump to see what Google is doing to add extensions to Chrome, and how it will differ from Firefox.