Strategic partnerships have mutual benefits and can lead to long-term profits.
Today after the bell, Alphabet, parent company of Google, reported its Q1 2020 performance. The company’s $41.16 billion in revenue for the three-month period came in ahead of expectations, besting analyst estimates of $40.33 billion. However, its earnings per share came in under expectations, with the street anticipating $10.38 in per-share profit, while Alphabet delivered a slimmer $9.87 in per-share income.
Shares of Alphabet rose around 2.8% in after-hours trading after shedding 3.3% in regular trading.
Google has begun charging law enforcement for access to user data, according to a report by the New York Times. The company is levying fees of $45 for a subpoena, $60 for a wiretap, and $245 for a search warrant, according to documents reviewed by the NYT.
The company receives a high volume of requests from law enforcement agencies to hand over data about its users and has therefore decided to bring in charges to “offset the costs” of compiling this data. According to the report, Google is legally allowed to levy these charges but traditionally big technology companies have handed over data without any charges.
The YouTubers are mad and YouTube is sorry.
Google’s video service says it “missed the mark” yesterday when it announced sweeping changes to its verification program. Those changes would have stripped the verification badges from some of YouTube’s most prominent users, which might have affected how they appear in search results, but now the service is apparently rethinking its approach.
In an apologetic statement sent out from the Twitter account of CEO Susan Wojcicki, the executive apologized “for the frustration & hurt that we caused with our new approach to verification.” YouTube is “working to address your concerns & we’ll have more updates soon,” Wojcicki said.
The Google Nest Hub Max seems like a pretty smart device–even if the name could use some work. It also has some pretty cool features. For example, the device will display the calendar or content customized for the person who happens to be looking at it, without them having to log on. That sounds really cool, but in order for it to work, there’s one giant catch.
It’s literally always watching you.
That’s because the Google Nest Hub Max’s front-facing camera is always on so it can detect and analyze faces and determine who’s interacting with. That also means that the device can be controlled with a series of gestures. I guess that’s cool, but Google wanting to put a camera in my house that’s always on? What could possibly go wrong?
Many small businesses constantly chase great online reviews. Because they have become a critical part of the prospect’s decision-making process. But what are the mistakes that they should avoid in the process? And are fake reviews going to dismantle the entire system?
The Impact of Online Reviews on Businesses
On the Small Business Radio Show this week we speak to Jeremy Lessaris. Lessaris founded irevu, an online reputation management company. He discusses how reviews can make or break your company. He says that “a one star drop at a plastic surgery office can cost the company millions of dollars.” They are having even more of an impact because Jeremy adds that Google is now frequently listing reviews in some cases before organic search results.
Self-driving cars are a shared ambition among Google, Tesla, Apple, Uber and Lyft, among other automotive, tech and ridesharing companies. For Uber and Lyft specifically, it’s a matter of cutting costs. However, fiscal expediency is not the main benefit of this emerging technology. Roughly 94 percent of traffic accidents are caused by human error, and to many, autonomous vehicles (AVs) seem to be our only path toward lessening related fatalities. In addition, driverless cars have other benefits, such as lower fuel consumption, lower CO2 emissions and a reduction in congestion. Here are the main ways they stand to change our lives and carve out a lane in the consumer marketplace, as well as the challenges this fledgling sector will need to overcome.
Posted in Tools and Information
Tagged Apple, autonomous vehicles, driverless cars, Google, Lyft, self driving cars, Tesla, Uber
YOU’RE PROBABLY AWARE that Google keeps tabs on what you’re up to on its devices, apps, and services—but you might not realize just how far its tracking reach extends, into the places you go, the purchases you make, and much more. It’s an extensive set of data, but you can take more control over what Google collects about you and how long the company keeps it. Here’s how.
It’s worth emphasizing first that we’re really dealing with two topics: The amount of data Google collects on you, which is a lot, and what Google then does with it. Google would say its data collection policies improve its services—helping you find a restaurant similar ones you’ve liked previously, say—whereas users might disagree.
Google+ never really emerged as the social network contender to beat the likes of Facebook and Twitter that Google had hoped it would be. Now, less than eight years after launching, Google+ has officially ceased to be. Google has stated that, starting today, content in Google+ consumer accounts will start being deleted. There are many reasons that could be plucked from the reasons for closure hat, not least that it was a wasteland rather than a thriving network, but the straw that broke this social camel’s back was actually a coding bug with user privacy implications.
The fancy Google Pixelbook painted a rosy picture for the future of the Chromebook when it launched. Yes, it was a bit too expensive given the limitations of Chrome OS, but the software has evolved quite a bit over the past couple of years. Now there was some premium hardware to match.
But if you believe the recent reporting around the matter, we may never see a true follow-up to the high-end Chromebook. Google has never been afraid to kill projects, and its Chrome OS hardware might be next. And that might not be as big a blow as you may think.
