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New browsers offer major improvements

Kate Pietrelli, marketing director of hi5, shows off a browser during a Microsoft Explorer event. (Chip Chipman/Bloomberg)

After a decade-long hiatus, the browser wars are officially back. With this week’s release of Internet Explorer 9, last week’s Google Chrome 10 release, and this month’s expected release of Firefox 4, the three most-used browsers are all trying to outduel one another with the most impressive specs. Safari 5, which was released in June, also features many of the same modern features. Get the full story »

Advocates for blind sue NU over use of Gmail

An advocacy group has filed a complaint with the federal government accusing New York University and Northwestern University of discriminating against the blind by adopting Google’s e-mail program. Get the full story »

Microsoft adds do-not-track tool to Explorer

Ryan Gavin, senior director of Internet Explorer for Microsoft, shows IE9 last month in in San Francisco. (Reuters)

A new version of Microsoft Corp.’s Internet Explorer to be released Tuesday will be the first major Web browser to include a do-not-track tool that helps people keep their online habits from being monitored. Get the full story »

Facebook hires Google exec to boost M&A

Facebook has hired a member of Google Inc.’s corporate development team to lead its fledgling merger and acquisition efforts.

Amin Zoufonoun, a director of corporate development at Google, will join the world’s No.1 Internet social network company next week, Facebook confirmed Monday. Get the full story »

Columbia College, YouTube to offer digital courses

Columbia College Chicago is partnering with YouTube to launch a program that will train “aspiring content creators” how to produce and market their digital work.

San Bruno, Calif.-based YouTube, which is a subsidiary of Google Inc., is also working with the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. The YouTube Creator Institute, as the program is called, is accepting applications through March 25 for its inaugural classes at each of the two partner schools. In Chicago, the program will accept 10 students and run between June 1 and July 22. Get the full story »

Android climbs to top of smart phone heap

Android is now the most-used smart phone operating system in the United States — a stunning race to the top from a platform that didn’t exist 25 months ago.

Nearly one third, or 31.2 percent, of U.S. smart phones ran Google’s Android OS in January, according to a study released Monday by comScore. That outpaced the 30.4 percent of American smart phone owners who use BlackBerry devices, which are made by Research in Motion. Get the full story »

New Google search rules weed out low-quality sites

Google Inc. announced a major change to its powerful search engine to reduce the appearance of what it calls “low-quality” Web sites in results.

The move comes after months of criticism from a few technology-industry insiders and an acknowledgement by Google last month that it “can and should do better” to beat back sites that game its system to rise up in search results but offer users little value. Get the full story »

Google rolls out Cloud Connect rival to Office

Google Inc., taking aim at Microsoft Corp.’s  lucrative Office franchise, plans to release a free tool allowing users to transfer files from the widely used software suite to the Web so that multiple people can edit and collaborate on them.

The long-anticipated move is intended to bolster one of Google’s fastest-growing businesses not related to its popular search engine — selling online software to companies. The company’s Google Apps offering includes online word-processing, spreadsheet and collaboration tools used through a Web browser that are part of a service called Google Docs. They compete with Office applications such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Get the full story »

YouTube seeks to extend live sports to NHL, NBA

Bloomberg News | YouTube says it has been talking with the National Basketball Association and National Hockey League to broadcast live games, part of a move into sports programming stated last year with cricket in India.

Chrome users now can block certain search results

AFP | Google Inc.  on Monday gave users of its Chrome Web browser the ability to block search results from low-quality Web sites known as content farms.

Google’s principal engineer, Matt Cutts, said Chrome users can download and install an extension for Chrome that blocks sites which provide “shallow or low-quality content” from their search results. Get the full story »

Google: It’s good to be a dog on Valentine’s Day

Google search trends show that Valentine’s Day searches for “personalized dog gifts” — such as a doggie sweater, collar or water bowl with a pooch’s name on it — are more than 10 percent higher than searches for “personalized husband gifts.”

Overall, searches on Google for “Valentine’s Day dog gifts” are up 30 percent this year over 2010. Get the full story »

YouTube in talks to buy video producer

Google Inc.’s YouTube is in talks to buy video producer Next New Networks, according to a person familiar with the discussions. Get the full story »

Facebook, Google start wooing Twitter

As Internet valuations climb and bankers and would-be buyers circle Silicon Valley in an increasingly frothy tech market, many eyes are on one particularly desirable, if still enigmatic, target: Twitter.

Executives at both Facebook Inc. and Google Inc., among other companies, have held low-level talks with those at Twitter Inc. in recent months to explore the prospect of an acquisition of the Web-based messaging service, according to people familiar with the matter. The talks have so far gone nowhere, these people say. Get the full story »

Report: Hackers in China hit Western oil companies

Hackers operating from China stole sensitive information from Western oil companies, a U.S. security firm reported Thursday, adding to complaints about pervasive Internet crime traced to the country.

The report by McAfee Inc. did not identify the companies but said the “coordinated, covert and targeted” attacks began in November 2009 and targeted computers of oil and gas companies in the United States, Taiwan, Greece and Kazakhstan. It said the attackers stole information on operations, bidding for oil fields and financing. Get the full story »

Google, EU in antitrust settlement talks

Google and European Union regulators are in tentative talks to resolve an antitrust probe against the Internet’s dominant search engine, a source familiar with the case said Monday.

A deal could avert a lengthy battle and possible fine for the U.S.-based company. Get the full story »