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News

• Google’s hiring procedures are cumbersome, candidates say

  Bolstered by the US$4.2 billion (NZ$6.3 billion) it raised in a second stock offering in September 2005, Google has been on a hiring spree and is still looking to fill more than 1,000 positions. But for some software developers and other IT workers, Google’s arduous and secretive hiring process has started outweighing the glamour and perks it offers. In response, the search engine vendor says it is taking steps to simplify and shorten its hiring procedures.

• The super information super highway

  Was anyone else surprised to learn that BBC TV presenters with “significant brain injuries” aren’t too dissimilar from TV presenters that don’t have such damage?

• Tested and true: little guys’ verdict on free Google apps

  With limited IT budgets and technical staff, some small and medium-sized businesses have started kicking the tyres of Google’s free, web-based Google Apps for Your Domain desktop application suite. Some early users are finding that the software works well in smaller operations.

• Google’s Schmidt joins Apple board

  Apple Computer has tapped the head of Google for its board, hoping to benefit from his extensive industry experience.

• Google works for visually impaired surfers

  Google has launched a new search service for visually impaired users, called Google Accessible search.

• We build our own servers because it's more efficient: Google

  Google, which is typically tight-lipped about the technology behind its datacentres, builds its own servers to save costs and because standard products don’t exactly meet its needs, the company’s senior vice president of operations, Urs Hölzle, says.

• Top-secret Google datacentre almost finished

  Google is nearing completion of a new datacentre on the banks of the Columbia River in Oregon. But trying to get information about the project is almost as difficult as finding Bigfoot, which is reputed to lurk in the area.

• Will growth chip away Google’s free spirit?

  Even as Google threatens to become as big a behemoth as rival Microsoft, the atmosphere at the Googleplex, in Mountain View, California, continues to exude a Californian hippie vibe. But as the company grows, can it maintain its free-spirited attitude for much longer?

• Shareholder gathering sees Google execs grilled

  The controversy over Google's censored Chinese search engine followed its top executives to the company's annual shareholder meeting on May 12 when an Amnesty International representative took the company to task over the issue.

• Google searching for corporate customers

  Google has its eye on the enterprise. The company doesn't plan to come busting through the front door, however, but is banking on its search technology and user adoption of its productivity tools to get onto corporate desktops.

• Google won’t buy into Silicon Valley wi-fi project

  Google is steering clear of a wireless competition to cover a large region just outside its planned San Francisco wi-fi project, a company spokeswoman says.

• Google searches for revenue in business space

  Google has demonstrated its interest in winning over business users — and IT managers — with the introduction of features for its corporate search appliance that can crawl through data from business applications.

• Google launches financial website

  Google has launched a financial news and information website called Google Finance that will be in direct competition with well-established ones such as Yahoo's Yahoo Finance and Microsoft's MSN Money.

• Judge: Google must give index data, not queries, to gov't

  In a highly anticipated decision, a federal judge ruled Friday that Google has to provide the US government with information about its search engine's index, but denied a request for a sample of search queries.

• Court likely to rule Google must give up data

  Google will likely have to turn over search-engine usage records to the US Department of Justice (DOJ) following a hearing in which the judge indicated he will probably order the company to comply with a government subpoena, according to published reports.