T-Mobile and Google Launch G1 Phone with Android
Google has recently released its much talked about G1 mobile phone. With services offered exclusively through T-Mobile, the touch-screen phone is powered by Android, Google's new mobile web platform. Android, an operating system offering all of the standard functionality found on similar mobile phones, also allows developers access to create their own applications using the Java programming language. The G1 is currently available in 95 cities across the U.S. or online through T-Mobile's website. Google and T-Mobile have also established a T-Mobile G1 online forum where users are able to ask questions and share insight about the phone and its applications.
Google Analytics Updated
Google has unveiled several new additions to its existing Google Analytics platform, including custom reports, advanced segmentation, an application programming interface, and AdSense integration. The new technology allows users to generate custom reports instead of only pre-determined reports, developers to create their own custom applications, customers to analyze specific components of their website traffic apart from the whole, and AdSense publishers to analyze performance by both page and referring site. Google released its Analytics updates just two weeks after Yahoo! released its own analytics platform, establishing itself as a more sophisticated option.
Google Settles Book Search Lawsuit
In conclusion to a two-year class action lawsuit by the Association of American Publishers, Google has agreed to pay $125 million in compensation for posting copyrighted content without authors' permission. Google and the AAP have reached an agreement where, moving forward, Google Book Search will be able to provide access to either clips of or full text versions of books (including those which are out of print) for its users. Book Search will also point users to appropriate locations should they wish to purchase the text in question. In return, the AAP will receive profit from ad revenue sharing, book sales, and subscriptions through institutions. Authors who register content with the Book Rights Registry are also subject to compensation if their work was previously posted on Book Search without their consent.
AOL Redesigns Home Page, Adding New Features
AOL, which has recently unveiled several customizable changes to its site, has just released a function that allows users to access several different social networking sites without leaving the AOL.com home page. AOL users are now able to post and receive messages on their profiles for MySpace, Facebook, and etc. without having to navigate to each individual site. The new AOL design also provides an option to customize the presentation of the home page by changing the navigation bar, choosing specific Web links, or receiving the latest news or RSS feeds from third-party sites. These new features coupled with digital advertising customization capabilities are aimed to complement recent updates to AOL Mail, which had a profound impact on the engine's traffic earlier this year.