Online Storage to be a luxury?

Let’s face it, we’ve been spoiled when it comes to storage of online data. Whether it’s Facebook or MySpace, or Google, Yahoo, or MSN, we’ve all benefited from free online storage services. But perhaps the good times are over. With the current economic situation, offering these luxury services for free may be a thing of the past. HP recently announced that it would be shutting down it’s online storage services. This follows a previous announcement by Yahoo to end it’s 10 year old program “Briefcase“. So far nothing announced from Google.

Companies tend to scale back on their service offering when times get tough. The Internet is no different. Free online data storage may soon be a thing of the past. Reflecting on your current backup routine it’s a good time to revisit good old trusty CD-R and DVD-R backups. They are cheap, fast, and accessible to almost everyone. Perhaps it’s something you should consider instead of buying that 1TB external drive to back up your photos or accounting data. Old technology doesn’t mean that they are still not useful.

Google flexes muscle with Chrome

Didn’t Google just dump a bunch of money at the front door of Mozilla a few months ago? Does this move seem counter productive?

“Google says that its new browser will move the web forward and provide a stronger platform for emerging web standards.” (link)

It seems like Google managed to keep the wraps on this project. I don’t recall reading any buzz over an upcoming browser. Although the explanatory cartoon is very in depth and interesting (I got bored after page 30). Before I make any judgments I will have to give it a try. Despite my ingrained comfort with Firefox I gotta try new Google stuff. They put a lot of effort into it and I’m sure they will win many Firefox, and Internet Explorer, users over. With so many free Google apps the seemless integration with their browser will convert users just with simplicity. Any complaints so far?

Android phone by October?

T-Mobile will be the first carrier to offer a mobile phone powered by Google’s Android software, according to people briefed on the company’s plans. The phone will be made by HTC, one of the largest makers of mobile phones in the world, and is expected to go on sale in the United States before Christmas, perhaps as early as October.

The high-end phone is expected to match many of the capabilities of Apple’s iPhone and other so-called smartphones that run software from Palm, Research in Motion, Microsoft and Nokia to access the Internet and perform computerlike functions.

The HTC phone, which many gadget sites are calling the “dream,” will have a touch screen, like the iPhone. But the screen also slides out to expose a full five-row keyboard. A video of the phone has been posted recently on YouTube. A person who has seen the HTC device said it matched the one in the video. (link)

Google: throttling is illegal (gives Bell the evil eye)

Google Inc. says Bell Canada Inc. is breaking Canadian telecommunications law by slowing certain internet traffic, and is urging the CRTC to take action against the company.

“Bell claims its throttling of peer-to-peer applications is a reasonable form of network management. Google respectfully disagrees. Network management does not include Canadian carriers’ blocking or degrading lawful applications that consumers wish to use,” the company wrote in a 15-page submission to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, which was made public over the weekend.

“From consumer, competition and innovation perspectives, throttling applications that consumers choose is inconsistent with a content and application-neutral internet, and a violation of Canadian telecommunications law, which forbids unfair discrimination and undue or unreasonable preferences and requires that regulation be technologically and competitively neutral.” (link)

Google adds privacy link to homepage

Bowing to criticism from privacy groups, Google added a “privacy” link to its homepage over the holiday weekend, even axing its own name from the page’s copyright notice so as to keep word weight in check.

Google is (in)famous for its adherence to a spartan aesthetic, and nowhere is that design sensibility more apparent than on the Google home page. The goal is to keep the word count low, which means that only the absolutely most important words—like “advertising programs” and “business solutions”—make the cut. But “privacy”? Nowhere to be found. Hey, you can always Google for it!

This, in fact, was Google’s response when it was criticized earlier this year by privacy activists who claimed that California law required a link to the privacy policy on the home page. It was also the response given a bit later when it emerged that Google was bucking the common practice of the Network Advertising Initiative (a trade group that includes Yahoo and Microsoft) by not including the notice. Google had nothing to hide, it said, it just cared deeply about the purity of the page. (link)