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How Ruth Porat Tamed Google’s Spending Binge

By Sarah Krouse · Aug. 11, 2021 6:01 AM PDT · 8 comments
For several years, a team inside X—the secretive research lab within Alphabet, Google’s parent company—has been working on a gadget to give people augmented-hearing abilities that would let them listen to select voices in a crowd. Recently, though, X told the team that they would no longer be pursuing the project, known as... For several years, a team inside X—the secretive research lab within Alphabet,...
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney. Photo by Bloomberg
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Epic’s Disingenuous Google Claims

By Martin Peers · Aug. 6, 2021 5:00 PM PDT
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney knows how to play to the crowd. In a court filing unsealed Thursday night related to Epic’s lawsuit against Google—initiated around the same time that Epic went after Apple last year—Epic makes the sure-to-generate-headlines assertion that Google had “contemplated buying some or all of Epic to squelch” the threat posed... Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney knows how to play to the crowd. In a court filing unsealed Thursday...
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Google’s Next AI Move: Teaching Foreign Languages

By Sarah Krouse · June 16, 2021 9:01 AM PDT
Google CEO Sundar Pichai last month previewed an artificial intelligence model that he said would enable people to have open-ended conversations with technology. But current and former employees who have worked with the language model say enabling coherent, free-flowing and accurate dialogue between humans and technology remains a tall order. As... Google CEO Sundar Pichai last month previewed an artificial intelligence model that he said would...
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Google Struggles to Match Apple on Smartphone Privacy Changes
By Sarah Krouse · May 17, 2021 6:02 AM PDT
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Google Struggles to Match Apple on Smartphone Privacy Changes

By Sarah Krouse · May 17, 2021 6:02 AM PDT
Pressured by Apple’s recent iPhone privacy initiative, Google is accelerating work to limit how app developers can track the 2.5 billion people who use phones powered by its Android software. The efforts are still in flux and have been delayed by internal concerns that such moves will diminish the $130 billion a year spent on U.S. mobile... Pressured by Apple’s recent iPhone privacy initiative, Google is accelerating work to limit...
Alphabet and Google chief Sundar Pichai. Photo by Bloomberg
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The Briefing: Roku Goes Up Against Google

By Martin Peers · April 26, 2021 5:32 PM PDT · 1 comment
If there ever was a time when small companies feared going public with their complaints about big tech, that time has passed. We saw that last week when Spotify and Tile complained to Congress about how Apple wields its power. And it was demonstrated again today when Roku sent a note to customers informing them that they might lose access to... If there ever was a time when small companies feared going public with their complaints about big...
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Startups Are Poaching Facebook, Google Execs

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · April 19, 2021 6:01 AM PDT · 2 comments
A few days before DoorDash went public last December, the food-delivery company hired a new vice president of enterprise sales and business development, Shanna Prevé. A 16-year veteran of Google, Prevé weighed the decision for six months before making the jump. Yet she’s far from unusual. Prevé is part of a growing... A few days before DoorDash went public last December, the food-delivery company hired a new vice...