Google Gadgets for Linux provides a platform for running desktop gadgets under Linux, catering to the unique needs of Linux users. It’s compatible with the gadgets written for Google Desktop for Windows as well as the Universal Gadgets on iGoogle. Following Linux norms, this project is open-sourced under the Apache License.
An important area where [...]

Google has published its plan to build into Chrome what is arguably its most requested feature: the ability to accept extensions that can customize how the open-source Web browser operates.
And guess what? Google’s dependence on advertising notwithstanding, one of the extension examples the company points to is the ability to block advertisements.
The Chrome extensions document, [...]

Google’s Android platform appears to be a much hotter seller than first anticipated by HTC, maker of the T-Mobile G1 phone.
The Taiwanese handset manufacturer is almost doubling its G1 shipment expectations for the year. HTC believes it can ship about one million G1 phones by the end of 2008, upped from figures of around 600,000 [...]

Google may be preparing to lay off thousands of workers, if a Silicon Valley information service is to be believed. WebGuild cites anonymous inside sources as saying up to 10,000 Google jobs could be on the way out, with smaller scale layoffs already underway.
Quiet Cutbacks
“Hundreds” of employees have been let go in the past few [...]

The Linux-based Android mobile platform, which was developed by Google for smartphone handsets, has been ported to TI’s Beagle Board. This port reflects the versatility of Android and demonstrates that it can be used viably on alternative hardware.
Our biggest disappointment with the T-Mobile G1, the first handset to launch with Android, is that code signing [...]

Gmail’s interface was revolutionary when it was first released, but the design was a bit too plain for a lot of users. After a short while, users started to develop Greasemonkey scripts and Firefox plugins that could bring some more excitement to the standard Gmail theme. Today, however, Google itself announced that will be rolling [...]

Google is tight-lipped about the Linux version of its Chrome browser, but the company’s programmers have proved a bit more forthcoming with a brief announcement that they have a crude version of Chrome working on Linux.
“Dude, Gmail works in the test shell on Linux!” said programmer Dan Kegel in a note to the Chromium developers [...]

Earlier this week, hackers found a way to gain root access to the Android operating system of the HTC G1. Root access allows users to install unauthorized applications. Google (NSDQ: GOOG) caught wind of it, and pulled a move eerily similar to what Apple has done in the past with the iPhone. Google issued an [...]

According to reports in the US media, Google has started to deploy the first security update for its Android mobile operating system. The users of T-Mobile’s G1 are offered the update for automatic installation. According to a system message, no emergency calls can be made while the update is being installed. A reboot is required [...]

Google this week took another step in its effort to shed light on the so-called Dark Web with its announcement that its engine can now search scanned documents in Adobe Systems’ PDF format.
Using Optical Character Recognition technology, Google’s search engine now can convert scanned PDF documents into text that can be searched and indexed, the [...]

Google has completed a new beta release of its browser. Users of previous versions should automatically receive Chrome 0.3.154.9 via the update feature found in the “About Google Chrome” menu item. It is worthwhile updating to the new version as it closes a URL spoofing hole that could be exploited for phishing attacks.
Read more at [...]

Struggling wireless phone maker Motorola will cut more jobs and focus on designing handheld devices that run Google’s new open source Android operating system. The company will pare down the number of operating systems for which it currently creates mobile phones to just three: Android, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and Motorola’s proprietary P2K platform.
Read more at [...]

As promised, search engine giant Google has released the source code for its Android platform — the open source technology that Google hopes will be adopted by mobile application developers, phone makers and carriers alike. The move comes just a day before the first Android-powered smartphone — the G1 — is set to hit U.S. [...]

Jui Tan, a partner for BlueRun Ventures who is based in Beijing, happened to be in Silicon Valley for a meeting a couple of weeks ago when Google finally unveiled the first Android mobile phone. The international mobile market is a main focus for Tan and BlueRun. Which is why, when I asked him for [...]

Google unveiled the first Android-powered cell phone last week, a T-Mobile-branded device dubbed the G1. Comparisons to Apple’s iPhone were immediate — and that is a good thing for Android, when you consider what a raucous and contentious week it was for iPhone developers.
Read more at Linux.com

Nokia is well prepared for Google’s high-profile foray into the mobile phone business thanks to years of development experience and millions of phones on the market, a senior Nokia official told Reuters. Details of Google’s plan to enter the mobile software market are expected on Tuesday when T-Mobile USA displays the first phone based on [...]

Google Inc.’s new Chrome browser grabbed 1% of the browser market in its first day out in public, Web metrics providers said today.
Both U.S.-based tracking company Net Applications Inc. and Irish vendor StatCounter put Chrome’s total market share at around 1%, less than 24 hours after the browser’s launch, passing rivals such as Opera and [...]

The open source software project, to be detailed later Tuesday at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., should dispel any lingering thoughts that the browser wars are over. To be sure, it is less cutthroat now than in the 1990s, but one of technology’s most powerful companies is now on the battlefield.
So how does Chrome [...]

Google has confirmed that it is launching Google Chrome, a new web browser. Rumours of a Google browser project had been around since 2004, but a posting on the Blogoscoped site has turned those rumours into something much more tangible. It reported on the arrival of a 38 page comic book, drawn by Scott McCloud, [...]

CNET’s Stephen Shankland has already picked up on Google’s decision to allow two popular open-source licenses back onto its Google Code open-source repository. Up until now, the Mozilla Public License (MPL) and Eclipse Public License (EPL) were both banned from the site.
The reasoning Shankland reports for Google belatedly approving the licenses, however, is a bit [...]