Google - News, Features, and Slideshows

Features

• Social media sites still don't do enough to combat abuse

  Every day, countless individuals and groups are victimized on social networks. The abusers, detached and cloaked in anonymity, often take on different personas as they shame, troll, incite and denigrate others with relative impunity. The ramifications can be devastating and, until recently, the majority of social media companies failed to acknowledge -- let alone confront -- the vulgarity and vicious threats that fly so freely on their platforms.

• Inside Google's Advanced Technology and Projects group

  "Epic" was the word Regina Dugan used to describe her team's research and development projects that included enlisting "Fast and Furious" movie franchise director Justin Lin to help create the next-generation movie experience. Dugan, vice president of Google's Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group, delighted thousands of developers in May at Google's annual I/O conference as she orchestrated demonstrations of applied technologies that seemed to originate from just over the horizon of most humans' imaginations.

• An IT view of Google Docs vs. Microsoft Word Online

  Traditional document applications are still among many workers' core computing apps, but the cloud-based Google for Work and Microsoft's Office 365 suites facilitate more collaborative, real-time workflows. The differences between Google Docs and Word Online are sometimes indiscernible, but for the millions of people who spend hours with the platforms each week, small variances can be a big deal.

• Inside the bold plan to bring gigabit fiber to Detroit

  When discussing the ongoing revitalization efforts in Detroit, it's hard to miss the name Dan Gilbert. The founder of Quicken Loans, owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, and a Detroit native himself, Gilbert's investment firms have funded dozens of tech startups in the city and turned its defunct old buildings into shiny new workspaces that look like Silicon Valley transplants.

• When it comes to mobile apps, IT is ‘slow, poor and weak'

  When 80 percent of employees say mobile technology is critical for getting their job done, but the same number say they haven't asked their IT department for the apps they need because they don't think they'd get what they need, that's a sure sign of trouble.

• Google's diversity numbers haven't changed, but the conversation has

  "We've always been reluctant to publish numbers about the diversity of our workforce at Google. We now realize we were wrong, and that it's time to be candid about the issues."

• How Apple's privacy stance could give Google an AI edge

  "We at Apple reject the idea that our customers should have to make tradeoffs between privacy and security," said Apple CEO Tim Cook earlier this month during an Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) event where he was honored for corporate leadership. "We can and we must provide both in equal measure."

• Standards are coming for containers

  A list of leading cloud, storage and virtualization companies are backing a new effort named the Open Container Project, which aims to create a set of standards for the fast-growing technology.

• Network analysis is like turning over rocks

  I just found out my company's employees have been finding ways to get around my Web filtering. And that came as a surprise, because I use a best-in-class product that employs a database to categorize and block website URLs, which I thought I could rely on. But as I found out, that product is not perfect.

• Office 365 vs. Google for Work: A cloud comparison for small businesses

  The price of enterprise collaboration and productivity tools for small- and medium-size businesses has dropped considerably. Cloud-based services from Microsoft, Google and others are available for what many folks pay for a single cup of coffee.

• Office 365 and Google for Work adoption rates to grow rapidly

  Cloud-based platforms such as Google for Work and Microsoft Office 365 are far from ubiquitous in today's workplace, but they're seeing rapid adoption, and that trend is going to continue. In fact, more than half of the small-to-medium size businesses (SMBs) queried as part of a new survey from BetterCloud plan to run all of their IT services in the cloud within five years.

• IT pros say Google slowly infiltrating enterprise, education

  Google's impact on the enterprise market may not have been obvious at its annual I/O developers conference in San Francisco last week, but the implications of the company's growing involvement and interest in business applications are strong. Google's suite of apps for work and education continue to help organizations cut costs while improving communication, productivity and collaboration across teams.

• Enterprise tech a no-show at Google I/O

  A parade of top Google executives cycled on and off the stage for more than two hours yesterday at the company's annual I/O developer conference in San Francisco, but because Google is involved in so many projects and markets, the company barely scratched the surface of what it is up to. For example, driverless cars, easily Google's most popular moonshot project, weren't even mentioned until the closing minutes of I/O keynote address. Cloud computing and Google+ weren't mentioned at all. Neither were Google's plans for the enterprise.

• Android Pay likely at Google I/O as Samsung preps its own service

  Google is expected to reveal details about Android Pay at its annual I/O conference this week, even as Samsung readies its own separate mobile payment service.

• Is your social media presence hurting your job search?

  Social media can make or break your career. We've all heard at least one story of an employee getting fired over a Tweet or Facebook post. And when you apply to a job, most hiring managers will first turn to Google to vet your background and qualifications.