Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Pentagon has banned Google Earth teams from making detailed street-level video maps of U.S. military bases. A message sent to all Defense Department bases and installations around the country late last week told officials to not allow the popular mapping Web site from taking panoramic views inside the facilities. Michael Kucharek, spokesman for U.S. Northern Command, told The Associated Press on Thursday that the decision was made after crews were allowed access to at least one base. He said military officials were concerned that allowing the 360-degree, street-level video could provide sensitive information to potential adversaries...

A few days ago, the transcript I posted of Michelle Obama's remarks was the first hit you got when you googled phrases like "we have to fix our souls", but now you can't see it anymore: GOOGLE - we have to fix our souls In fact, you can't see it even when you require that Google restrict its search to Free Republic: GOOGLE - we have to fix our souls site:freerepublic.com

How big do you have to be to earn the wrath of the United Nations and Internet giant Google? If you're journalist Matthew Lee, all it takes are some critical articles and a scrappy little Web site. Lee is the editor-in-chief, Webmaster and pretty much the only reporter for Inner City Press, a pint-sized Internet news operation that's taken on Goliath-sized entities like Citigroup since 1987. Since 2005, he's been focusing almost entirely on stories that deal with internal corruption inside the U.N., posting several stores online almost daily. He's been especially interested in the inner workings of what could...

Google's news and the hate sites by Islamic radicals: such as "uruknet"   Can anyone explain to me how did such a -- pro Hamas terror and anti Israel hate -- site be bumped at GoogleNews?   One f the typical examples of this crazy site's langugae and "credibility" is such a title (in 2007) "Israelis enjoy torturing the Palestinians".   No further explanation is really needed, it is against Fatah, i backs the GENOCIDE party of Hamas all the way as "martyrs" and presents its crimes against humanity -- of using its civilians as pawns, especially their kids -- as "heroic".   Here's...

In the last five years, the New York Times has declined in value by an astonishing 70 percent. There is no indication that things will get better any time soon. Indeed, as the specter of recession looms, there is every reason to believe that things will get worse. At some point here in the near future, the market capitalization of the New York Times will fall below $2 billion. At that point, a psychological floor will have collapsed and the company will be in play. The company that has the most to gain from buying the New York Times is...

NET NEUTRALITY (sic) "This is how poisonous it's gotten in Washington," says consulting lobbyist for a broadcast network. "You have Republicans taking money from companies and firms working to end their control of Congress, and even worse, working with outfits like MoveOn.org. And they are taking this money to not only help groups dedicated to defeating Republicans, but also for legislation that would regulate the Internet." The highest profile Republican among those the lobbyist is referring to is Vin Weber, former House member and close ally to both former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Americans for Tax Reform leader Grover...

People, when assembled in large groups, can be disastrously evil. People allowed to act as individuals can have scary thoughts, but they are usually harmless. So what happens when you collect large amounts of data from individuals and assemble behavioral dynamics for the masses?The latest trend in the interactive industry consolidation is a turf war to make the consuming public's life easier and more enjoyable. Centering around this activity of course, is the mountain of revenue in collecting fees for the once scoffed at search engine advertising links. Isn't simplicity beautiful? Advertising is going to become relevant and user controlled....

Go to Google and you will find candy canes and bows adorning the website's logo. Go to China Daily and behold glad tidings of a Merry Christmas wish. Merry Christmas to All!

[see graphic on Google front page]

Google's tastes in alternative energy run the gamut from proven technologies to ideas that haven't left the lab. Two ideas the company already is exploring: Solar thermal One of the companies Google touted Tuesday, eSolar of Pasadena, develops solar power plants large enough to light a small city. The basic idea is simple enough. An array of mirrors focuses sunlight on a tower, generating intense heat. That heat, carried by a liquid flowing through the tower, is used to generate steam. The steam turns a turbine and produces electricity. ... But interest in the technology languished for years when electricity...

(11-27) 13:27 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- Google Inc. says it will spend hundreds of millions of dollars to develop renewable energy as part of an ambitious plan to clean the environment and reduce the company's own power bill. The Mountain View company said Tuesday that it will open its deep pockets to foster innovation in solar, wind and geothermal technology in the hopes of making green energy cheaper than power produced by burning coal. To start the initiative, Google said that it will invest tens of millions of dollars in renewable power, spread over research and development and related investments,...

Privacy International, a human rights research organization, completed a six-month investigation of privacy practices for 23 Internet companies. Results of the consultation report were published this week, and the final report will be published in September. Privacy International is soliciting additional comments on the findings before it publishes the more detailed report. The data used for the consultation report provides a strong indication of which companies rank best to worst for their privacy practices. Google ranked at the very bottom of the list primarily because the research showed numerous deficiencies and hostilities in Google's approach to privacy that "go well...

Call me a cynic but I find Al Gore’s emergence as this hundred-millionaire, successful businessman as a bit of a farce. I can understand the Oscar. When considering who gives out those trophies, I believe he would have won the Oscar if his “documentary” were shot by himself on a $300 camcorder. I remember when the 2,000 election was over and officially decided, one of my dear conservative friends (who shall remain nameless) actually said to me that she feels sorry for Al Gore. She felt sorry for him after hearing how after all those years in office, he was...

Interesting view of the Middle east. Roads all over... except in Israel. Why doesn't Google just cut the pretense and call it Palestine?

The left-leaning political advocacy group, MoveOn.org, is backing down in a flap over the use of its name in online advertisements, permitting an influential Republican senator to criticize the organization in a reelection ad on Google’s search engine.“We don’t want to support a policy that denies people freedom of expression,” says Jennifer Lindenauer, MoveOn.org’s communications director.Both MoveOn.org and Google late last week faced a barrage of criticism after an internet strategist for Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine complained that Google had blocked several re-election ads from the search engine’s advertising network because the ads contained the trademarked term “MoveOn.org”...

Yahoo just became my new search utility: Internet giant Google has banned advertisements critical of MoveOn.org, the far-left advocacy group that caused a national uproar last month when it received preferential treatment from The New York Times for its “General Betray Us” message. The ads banned by Google were placed by a firm working for Republican Sen. Susan Collins’ re-election campaign. Collins is seeking her third term. Earlier this week, Google told Lance Dutson, president of Maine Coast Designs, that the ads he placed for Collins had been removed and would not be allowed to resume because they violated Google’s...

WASHINGTON- Internet giant Google has banned advertisements critical of MoveOn.org, the far-left advocacy group that caused a national uproar last month when it received preferential treatment from The New York Times for its “General Betray Us” message. The ads banned by Google were placed by a firm working for Republican Sen. Susan Collins’ re-election campaign. Collins is seeking her third term. Earlier this week, Google told Lance Dutson, president of Maine Coast Designs, that the ads he placed for Collins had been removed and would not be allowed to resume because they violated Google’s trademark policy. Google’s Web site states,...

Internet giant Google has banned advertisements critical of MoveOn.org, the far-left advocacy group that caused a national uproar last month...Google’s Web site states, “Google takes allegations of trademark infringement very seriously and, as a courtesy, we’re happy to investigate matters raised by trademark owners.” "...Google routinely permits the unauthorized use of company names such as Exxon, Wal-Mart, Cargill and Microsoft in advocacy ads. An anti-war ad currently running on Google asks “Keep Blackwater in Iraq?” and links to an article titled “Bastards at Blackwater — Should Blackwater Security be held accountable for the deaths of its employees?”

WASHINGTON -- Should the world's most-used search engine be more of a Yankee Google Dandy? Google Inc. occasionally features light-hearted doodles on its colorful home-page logo to commemorate special occasions. But now they are drawing criticism from conservatives for not being more patriotic. The Mountain View, Calif., company bathes its logo in stars and stripes every Independence Day, but last week's decision to honor the 50th anniversary of the Sputnik launch -- the second "g" in Google was replaced with a drawing of the Soviet satellite -- is being blasted by some conservatives. Not only did Google honor an achievement...

Google ignored Memorial Day and Veterans Day, but today they have a special logo up to commemorate an event that must be near to their hearts—the 50th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s launch of the Sputnik satellite.