Reporter's notebook: Google guys do hate evil
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At the last day of the Web 2.0 Summit, attendees learned that having their genome mapped will set them back $300,000 and that&#160;Google&#39;s founders really stress over the prevention and extermination of evil.During a panel of former Google employees, they confirmed to moderator and conference chair John Battelle that, yes, Larry Page and Sergey Brin do factor heavily into business and technology decisions whether they will have evil consequences.WeatherBill CEO David Friedberg belonged to Google&#39;s Corporate Development team and, when negotiating acquisitions, it wasn&#39;t unheard of for either Page or Brin to ask hard questions about the deals if they sensed that the members of companies&#39; management teams had an evil streak, he said.Meanwhile, entrepreneur Bret Taylor, who developed products at Google for four years, said Page and Brin were excellent at steering product teams to think big while reminding them always keep in mind the question of evil.Earlier in the day, genetics maverick J. Craig Venter informed attendees that mapping a person&#39;s genome these days costs about $300,000, but that, as happened with calculators, the price will tumble over time. For instance, if you can wait a couple of years, the cost will probably be closer to $100,000. That&#39;s a bargain compared with the about $70 million that it cost to map Venter&#39;s genome.Venter&#39;s genome is posted on the Internet. He joked that there might come a day when singles on the dating scene will be able to do a Google search for potential mates&#39; genomes, especially if they might at some point consider becoming fruitful and multiplying.The son of a man who died of cardiac arrest at age 59 and of a woman who is still playing golf at 85, Venter has identified genes in his map both for heart disease and longevity. However, he estimates that scientists will need a critical mass of 10,000 human genomes in order to engage in the type of analysis that will lead to major, unequivocal insights about genetic traits.And in a rare display of corporate affection, representatives from Internet archrivals Google and Microsoft sat beside each other at a panel on online maps and exchanged pleasantries.The slightly surreal moment came about halfway through the a panel titled &quot;Edge: Mapping.&quot; Brian McClendon, engineering director and product manager of Google Earth, commended his Microsoft peer Erik Jorgensen, general manager of Live Search, for Microsoft&#39;s support of&#160;Google&#39;s Keyhole Markup Language (KML).KML is the language used to create data files for both Google Maps and its sister desktop application Google Earth. On Monday, Microsoft announced that its&#160;Live Search&#160;engine&#39;s local search component has gained support for KML, giving it access to the wealth of mapping data created with KML and available on the Web.Microsoft and Google can &quot;duke it out&quot; for customer acquisition, but &quot;the fight shouldn&#39;t be on file formats, so cooperating on this makes all the sense in the world,&quot; Jorgensen said during the mini lovefest.
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When it comes to protecting the privacy of its users, Google Inc. ranks worse than any other Internet company, according to an interim report by Privacy International. The international watchdog group also accused Google of engaging in a smear campaign in response to its findings, and demanded an apology.
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Google has a problem -- a good one.
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Vista tops list of tech disappointments...NYT and Henry Blodget weigh in on Google's threat to Microsoft...More people are "Googling" themselves and more...
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Securities class-action attorney William Lerach, who has been called the most-hated man in the tech business, is set to plead guilty to a count of conspiracy, the Wall Street Journal reports. Hear that sound? It's champagne corks popping all over Silicon Valley.
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Big Goo's spurning Yahoo!'s business? Don't believe it.
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Orkut, a Web site of online communities created and run by Google, contains a small portion of dialogues that advance hatred toward certain groups.
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Google begins trading. Finally. Bill Mann's pretty tired of the navel-gazing.
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Plus: Google apps for your site, and HP's pretexting debacle.
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I'm going to tell you about one of the biggest trolls of 2007. Now, I'm not talking about someone schooling HuSi or Slashdot. &nbsp; I'm not talking about someone rickrocking the comment boards at Newgrounds. I'm going to tell you about a troll of international scope. &nbsp;
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Blog: Watchdog group ranks Google among the worst top Internet sites for privacy, but Google says report is based on inaccuracies.
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For some reason (settling bar bets?), Google searchers have had one question on their minds.
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By Michael Liedtke Associated Press  SAN FRANCISCO -- Google Inc.'s privacy practices are the worst among the Internet's top destinations, according to a watchdog group seeking to intensify the recent focus on how the online search leader handles personal information about its users.
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Google's spooky valuation could drive investors batty.
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Annual reports are usually deadly boring documents filled with legalese -- Google's 10-K makes for interesting reading. Plus: If Steve Jobs is a crook, he's not getting richer from it. In Epicenter.
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Google Inc.'s Blogger service has been generating a steady stream of complaints from users this year.
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Slashdot is covering the arrest of Keith Henson.  He made a joke on a newsgroup, now he's arrested for defying a fundamentalist religion with legions of zealous lawyers.