Internet & Media

Facebook experiences apparent outage

Facebook was down for brief time this evening, and some users are still complaining of sluggishness on the site.

The outage appears to have begun around 4:26 p.m., according to flood of tweets by Facebook users complaining that they were unable to access the site.

Facebook is acting like its stock. It keeps going down
— HAL 9000 (@HAL9000_)

Facebook bulks up admin access with new privilege levels

Facebook is giving page administrators more muscle in deciding how things get done on their pages.

The social network has introduced five different levels of admin privileges, allowing companies to assign specific duties and permissions to individuals without giving everyone all the keys to the page.

A Facebook help center page published today describes the new roles of manager, content creator, moderator, advertiser, and insights analyst:

These updates are geared toward businesses, so that more than one person can work on social media but a primary administrator can still be in charge of who is doing what. Before now, companies more

Judge says authors can sue Google

A judge filed a ruling today that gives authors, photographers, and illustrators the green light to sue Google.

The ruling allows the drawn-out court case -- over Google Books' practice of scanning book out of print and copyrighted content for Web searches -- to move forward. The suit will now determine if Google's argument that it has a fair-use defense has any merit.

In his ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin, from the Southern District of New York, said the Authors Guild and another group has a right to pursue the suit on behalf of other authors. more

Google blasts Microsoft, Nokia for hiding behind patent trolls

Google today filed a complaint with the Europe Commission and sent a report to the Federal Trade Commission complaining that Microsoft and Nokia are funding patent trolls in order to discourage device makers from using the Android mobile operating system.

The documents are not suits, but rather informational reports sent to regulators to make them aware of actions that Google believes are anti-competitive. Google submitted the documents to preempt Microsoft and Nokia from using proxies to wage patent wars against companies that might otherwise use Android.

"Nokia and Microsoft are colluding to raise the costs of mobile devices for consumers, more

Google tries, tries again with online shopping

Amazon may not exactly be quaking quite yet, but Google is taking another stab at revamping its lackluster online-shopping business by forging closer commercial links with online merchants and improving its product-related search function.

The Web giant rolled out a new initiative today that renames its fornerly uninspiring "Google Product Search" service as "Google Shopping" while also changing the ground rules:

First, by requiring merchants to pay for listings (Google calls them "product-listing ads") that were formerly free;
Second, by inserting these paid product placements into general search results more obviously and with bigger photos than ever before. Google is

The man who really knows what will happen with Facebook

He already knows who's going to win the election. He predicted the last one.

Just as he was right about the 2008 Super Bowl a full three days in advance.

So, with the tech world crumbling around its educated ears, my CNET handlers yanked at my dog collar and told me to talk to him. For the Amazing Kreskin would surely know what will happen with Facebook.

I called him. (I have most of the phone numbers of the rich and famous. Well, a couple.) And Kreskin has appeared with Jimmy Fallon (proof embedded here) so that counts as more

Google Street View takes you to 'World Wonders'

Traveling to the world's most famous attractions is far and away the best way to see them, but Google doesn't want those who are short of time or money to be left out of seeing icons like Stonehenge, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Starting today, Google's new World Wonders Project brings the company's famous Street View technology to 132 famous sites in 18 countries, sometimes using pedal power instead of its now familiar camera-topped cars.

Among the sites included in the project are Versailles in France, Jerusalem in Israel, Historic Route 66 in the United more

Facebook appears to choose Opera over Chrome for recommended browser list

Let the conspiracy theories begin.

Facebook has apparently booted Google's Chrome browser off its supported recommended browser list, instead highlighting Opera, according to Favbrowser, which managed to cache a page with the note.

It's uncertain how official the page is, as it no longer accessible. Under Facebook's support page, all four major browsers are listed.

The switch is particularly noteworthy because of speculation that Facebook is interested in acquiring Opera. Facebook, meanwhile, has long considered Google a competitor in the social arena.

Sitting alongside Opera in the cached supported browser page is Microsoft's Internet Explorer and more

Google's Pichai predicts Chrome OS, Android convergence

PALOS VERDES, Calif.--Speaking about the Chrome operating system, which he's in charge of, Google's Sundar Pichai seemed to predict that his product and that other Google operating system, Android, may some day merge.

Android is more mature, he admitted. Google acquired this product and released it fairly well-formed. But Chrome OS was built in-house, and Google was open about it from day one. It's much younger.

But as the mobile, tablet, and desktop platforms gain more power, the products may in fact converge. He pointed to the audience and noted how many people are using a more

Google execs on piracy: It's not a technical problem

PALOS VERDES, Calif. -- At the D conference today, a pair of top Google execs rebutted the contention made the night before by Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel that Google should be doing much more to combat piracy.

Emanuel had equated piracy of content to child pornography, and said that if Google could filter the pornography (which it does), then it could filter for pirated content, especially that which is sent overseas.

Susan Wojcicki, Google's senior vice president of advertising, said it doesn't work that way. "I think he was misinformed," she said. "Very misinformed."

She went on: "We