BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2012
A quick look at this week’s agenda http://benton.org/calendar/2012-02-12--P1W/
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Protests erupt across Europe against web piracy treaty
Iran increasingly controls its Internet
Smart TVs cause a network neutrality debate in South Korea
The Vital Role of Global Journalism in the Digital Age - op-ed
Proposal for EU Roaming Fees Includes Global Cap
Glimmer of hope for Mexican telecoms [links to web]
PRIVACY
Google tells FTC of progress on privacy
Start-Ups Seek to Help Users Put a Price on Their Personal Data
So Many Apologies, So Much Data Mining
Sites Are Accused of Privacy Failings
DIVERSITY
Sunday Shows Overwhelmingly White And Male: Study
INTERNET/BROADBAND
BTOP Case Study Five: Bill Callahan, Connect Your Community Project Director, OneCommunity
Inveneo bringing broadband to developing countries
A cyber risk to the US - editorial [links to web]
UNIVERSAL SERVICE
Lifeline Order Strikes Balance between Needs, Burdens - analysis
Mobility Fund Phase I Auction - press release
Sebastian Brings Service to Isolated Town Without Electricity [links to web]
JOURNALISM
A model to save newspapers: Where paywalls actually work [links to web]
Who Advertises on News Sites and How Much Those Ads are Targeted - research [links to web]
ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
Broadcasting, Disclosure and Democracy - analysis
FCC’s McDowell On Putting Political Files Online: What's the Rush?
Romney in His Comfort Zone in Technology Speech
Local TV stations stand to profit from boom in super-PAC spending [links to web]
TELEVISION
Fox Knows What FCC’s Genachowski Should - editorial
Rural Telcos: FCC Sec. 706 Authority Covers Retransmission Reform
Petitioners demand Comcast carry Al-Jazeera nationally [links to web]
Madonna slams MIA's Super Bowl finger gesture [links to web]
Netflix, Hulu original shows challenge broadcast, cable TV [links to web]
Numerous Small Television Producers Seek Waiver of FCC Closed Captioning Rules [links to web]
At MSNBC, a Professor as TV Host [links to web]
Jimmy Kimmel Walks Web Tightrope [links to web]
PATENTS
Apple sues Motorola Mobility over Qualcomm license
COMPANY NEWS
Erasing the Boundaries
Google testing Google-manufactured personal communication deviceWhy Google Is Getting Into Entertainment: Your Data - analysis
Intel settles NY antitrust case for just $6.5 million [links to web]
Amazon’s Kindle Plays A Part In Penguin’s Library Decision - analysis [links to web]
63% of iPhones were activated outside the US last quarter [links to web]
Google: Will it be vulnerable in mobile search? [links to web]
Android to overtake Apple in app downloads [links to web]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
BlackBerry out at U.S. climate agency, iPhone in [links to web]
Air Force May Buy 18,000 Apple IPad 2s [links to web]
MORE ONLINE
Mooresville’s Shining Example (It’s Not Just About the Laptops) [links to web]
How social media is making polling obsolete - analysis [links to web]
Twitter Is All in Good Fun, Until It Isn’t - analysis [links to web]
Newsweek’s Publishing of Vulgarity Draws Fire [links to web]
What a smart phone can't find: happiness - op-ed [links to web]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
ACTA PROTESTS IN EUROPE
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Erik Kirschbaum, Irina Ivanova]
Tens of thousands of protesters took part in rallies across Europe on Feb 11 against an international anti-piracy agreement they fear will curb their freedom to download movies and music for free and encourage Internet surveillance. More than 25,000 demonstrators braved freezing temperatures in German cities to march against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) while 4,000 Bulgarians in Sofia rallied against the agreement designed to strengthen the legal framework for intellectual property rights. There were thousands more - mostly young - demonstrators at other high-spirited rallies despite snow and freezing temperatures in cities including Warsaw, Prague, Slovakia, Bucharest, Vilnius, Paris, Brussels and Dublin. Opposition to ACTA in Eastern Europe is especially strong and spreading rapidly. Protesters have compared it to the Big Brother-style surveillance used by former Communist regimes. Downloading films and music is also a popular way for many young Eastern Europeans to obtain free entertainment.
benton.org/node/113172 | Reuters
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IRAN’S INTERNET CONTROLS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Thomas Erdbrink]
Having seen social media help power uprisings across the Middle East, Iran’s leaders are trying to get control over what is uploaded, posted and discussed on the Internet. And after a slow start, authorities are becoming more and more successful, Iranian Internet users say. Many fear that the disabling of the software used to bypass the state-run firewall heralds the coming of what authorities have labeled the National Internet. The government’s technology officials have announced the construction of a domestic Internet network comparable to an office intranet, which would block many popular sites. They have hinted the National Internet can be launched at any time, and have said it will gradually start working over the coming three years. The move is borne out of necessity, authorities say, in order to prevent Iran’s Western enemies from spying on Iranian citizens. The crackdown on Internet freedom comes amid tension in Iran over a series of mysterious assassinations and explosions that have been blamed on U.S. or Israeli spies. The West has put increasing pressure on Iran in recent months to abandon its uranium enrichment program, which Iran insists is peaceful but which the U.S. and others claim is geared toward the development of a nuclear weapon.
benton.org/node/113157 | Washington Post
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SMART TVs CAUSE NET NEUTRALITY DEBATE
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
Remember that whole network neutrality fight in the U.S. from 2009 and 2010? Well back then the issue was over applications hogging precious bandwidth, and ISPs hoping to charge the likes of Google, Netflix and others for the increasing traffic running across wireline and wireless pipes. Korea Telecom in South Korea has taken an interesting twist on the idea, and decided to block Samsung’s Smart TVs from accessing the Internet. That’s right, network neutrality isn’t just for applications anymore. KT cut off Samsung’s Smart TVs after a dispute over how much data those TVs consume.
benton.org/node/113138 | GigaOm
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VITAL ROLE OF JOURNALISM
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Peter Osnos]
[Commentary] The Committee to Protect Journalists has just marked its thirtieth anniversary, in a year notable for the breadth of international protest movements and the expansion of digital technology for the collection and distribution of information. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have become embedded in the dissemination of events as they take place and have impacted the definition of news in fundamental respects. In ways unimagined a decade ago, the streets are filled with amateurs. Their efforts at working around the repressive techniques of authoritarian governments have made a significant difference in newsgathering. Trained journalists and the "citizen" reporters who supply so much of the raw material for them are at the forefront of upheaval, with consequences that are as dangerous as they are illuminating. CPJ's annual report, along with the many additional surveys available on its website, provide unusually valuable insight into the organization's work: monitoring the role of journalism and defending the rights of journalists wherever unrest spreads.
benton.org/node/113125 | Atlantic, The
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EU ROAMING FEES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Kevin O’Brien]
European lawmakers, who two years ago capped fees for mobile data roaming within the European Union at €50 a month, want to expand the protection to cover the whole world. The proposal is part of a plan to extend Europe’s five-year-old limits on charges for voice, text and data roaming through 2022 and is likely go to a European Parliament vote by April. The current limits are set to expire in July. Extending the price controls is considered likely, but the rates proposed for the new limits through 2014 have been criticized by consumer advocates as too high, exceeding existing prices in Sweden and some other EU countries. Under the proposal the cost of roaming on voice calls would drop from 35 cents a minute to 25 cents on July 1 and to 15 cents by 2014. The cost of receiving a call would drop from 11 cents to 7 cents in July and to 5 cents in 2014. The price for sending a text message would fall to 8 cents in July this year and to 5 cents in July 2014. The proposal would require that the controls remain in place until 2022 but would set specific limits only through 2015. By then, lawmakers would reconvene to adjust the caps for the next three-year period.
benton.org/node/113183 | New York Times
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PRIVACY
GOOGLE’S PRIVACY REPORT
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Michelle Quinn, Tony Romm]
Amid controversy over its plans to combine user data from search to YouTube, Google told the Federal Trade Commission in a self-assessment report that the upcoming changes in its privacy policy are fully in compliance with the company’s settlement with the federal government last year. The report — delivered to the FTC in January — lays out the steps the company has taken internally to make sure it complies with the FTC’s consent decree finalized in November over the firm’s privacy policies. Google says the efforts represent “exceptional lengths” by the company to keep users informed how the Internet firm collects, uses and shares information. Part of Google’s settlement involving its now-defunct Buzz social network includes 20 years of assessments of the firm’s privacy policies from an outside auditor. In the document, Google said it has hired PriceWaterhouseCoopers to provide the assessments, which will be made every other year starting this summer. "Google's report makes clear that the company failed to comply with the obligations set out in the consent order, particularly with respect to the changes announced on Jan. 24, 2012. It is clear that the Federal Trade Commission will need to act,” said Electronic Privacy Information Center Executive Director Marc Rotenberg.
benton.org/node/113169 | Politico | LATimes
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PUTTING A PRICE ON PERSONAL DATA
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Joshua Brustein]
Facebook’s pending initial public offering gives credence to the argument that personal data is the oil of the digital age. The company was built on a formula common to the technology industry: offer people a service, collect information about them as they use that service and use that information to sell advertising. People have been willing to give away their data while the companies make money. But there is some momentum for the idea that personal data could function as a kind of online currency, to be cashed in directly or exchanged for other items of value. A number of start-ups allow people to take control — and perhaps profit from — the digital trails that they leave on the Internet.
benton.org/node/113205 | New York Times
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DATA MINING
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Nick Bilton]
The most sought-after bounty for state officials: dissidents’ address books, to figure out who they are in cahoots with, where they live and information about their family. In some cases, this information leads to roundups and arrests. A person’s contacts are so sensitive that Alec Ross, a senior adviser on innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, said the State Department was supporting the development of an application that would act as a “panic button” on a smartphone, enabling people to erase all contacts with one click if they are arrested during a protest.
Arun Thampi, a programmer in Singapore, discovered that the mobile social network Path was surreptitiously copying address book information from users’ iPhones without notifying them. David Morin, Path’s voluble chief executive, quickly commented on Mr. Thampi’s blog that Path’s actions were an “industry best practice.” He then became uncharacteristically quiet as the Internet disagreed and erupted in outrage.
benton.org/node/113204 | New York Times
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PRIVACY FAILINGS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Julia Angwin]
Getting personal information removed from websites that collect it can feel a lot like playing Whac-a-Mole. Lawmakers and regulators are trying to do more to address consumer concerns. There is no U.S. law, as there is in Europe, requiring companies to allow people to view or delete their personal data on file at an institution. Last year, Sens. John Kerry (D-MA) and John McCain (R-AZ) introduced legislation that would require most data brokers to let people view and make corrections to the personal data stored about them. The White House is expected to call for similar rights when it releases its "Privacy Bill of Rights" later this year.
benton.org/node/113203 | Wall Street Journal
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DIVERSITY
SUNDAY TALK SHOWS
[SOURCE: The Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Jack Mirkinson]
A new study confirms, yet again, one of the more troubling features of the Sunday morning talk shows: that they are dominated by white men. The study, released by the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts, is part of a new initiative by a wide coalition of Latino groups to bring more diversity to the Sunday shows. The NHFA tabulated every guest and commentator on "This Week," "Meet the Press," "Face the Nation" and "Fox News Sunday" from March-November of 2011. The lack of diversity on the Sunday shows is, of course, hardly news, but the seemingly cast-in-stone makeup of the shows at a time of rapidly increasing diversity is always noteworthy. According to the study, the guests on the shows are 88 percent white, 8 percent black, 3 percent Latino and just 1 percent Asian or Native American. The roster of commentators was similarly skewed: 83 percent white, 7.6 percent black, 4 percent Latino and .67 percent Asian or Native American. Women also represented by just 22 percent of guests.
benton.org/node/113134 | Huffington Post, The
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
ONECOMMUNITY
[SOURCE: National Telecommunications and Information Administration]
OneCommunity, a non-profit broadband provider in Northeast Ohio, is using Recovery Act funding to expand innovative broadband adoption work it is doing in Cleveland and replicate the program in seven other communities in Ohio and four other states. The Connect Your Community (CYC) project provides computer classes and broadband training, as well as low-cost equipment and help finding affordable Internet access, to get low-income households online. One key to the program is the CYC Corps, a team of staffers hired in each community to teach computer and Internet basics to others, who are using those skills to look for jobs or even start their own businesses online. Working with eight local partners, OneCommunity says it is on track to produce 26,000 new broadband adopters. (OneCommunity is also using another Recovery Act award to upgrade and expand its fiber-optic network, which connects anchor institutions in Northeast Ohio).
benton.org/node/113159 | National Telecommunications and Information Administration
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INVENEO
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Esha Chhabra]
Two years ago, when international aid groups rushed to help earthquake-ravaged Haiti, little did they expect that one of the greatest needs would be for an Internet connection. Tech-savvy social enterprise Inveneo, quickly recognized that connectivity would be key for these organizations to coordinate efforts. Within a week, and with the help of Ekta Foundation and Net Hope, Inveneo set up a network for relief workers to communicate and more efficiently deliver water, food, shelter and medical services. Google.org took note and supported Inveneo with a $182,000 grant as the group's workers stayed in Haiti to build a broadband network amid the destruction, partnering with Haitian technology companies and training local talent to maintain and service it after everyone left.
benton.org/node/113200 | San Francisco Chronicle
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UNIVERSAL SERVICE
BALANCED LIFELINE ORDER
[SOURCE: JSI Capital Investors, AUTHOR: Cassandra Heyne]
The Julius Genachowski Federal Communications Commission continued its mission to go down in history as the Commission that modernized telecommunications regulation for a broadband world (or at least attempted to do so) with its latest sweeping revamp of the Universal Service Fund. The new rules adopted in the Lifeline Reform Report and Order and FNPRM might be a bit short of a “sweeping revamp,” but they do appear to thoroughly close loopholes and accomplish a considerable amount of administrative reform in the Lifeline program in order to move towards a more streamlined, effective and organized support system for low income Americans. The FCC attempts to create balance between meeting the communications needs of low-income consumers and minimizing the contributions burden on those who pay into the Fund. The FCC also attempts to minimize administrative burdens for ETCs who provide Lifeline discounts while also ensuring that only individuals who truly qualify are enrolled. While most of the rules largely constitute housekeeping, the proposed pilot programs for Lifeline-supported broadband may prove more interesting.
benton.org/node/113129 | JSI Capital Investors
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MOBILITY FUND AUCTION
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Federal Communications Commission announced steps to close our nation’s gaps in mobile service as part of the agency’s groundbreaking reforms under the Connect America Fund, which the FCC adopted last year to put America on the path to universal broadband and advanced mobile coverage by the end of the decade. The Commission recently released a public notice announcing a reverse auction to award $300 million in one-time Mobility Fund Phase I support starting the implementation process. It also has developed and released a new interactive map to illustrate areas potentially eligible for support. As part of the Connect America Fund, the Commission created for the first time the Mobility Fund, a universal service support mechanism dedicated exclusively to mobile services. Phase I of the Mobility Fund will provide one-time support to accelerate our nation's ongoing efforts to close gaps in mobile wireless service. The Mobility Fund helps improve coverage in these areas for current-generation or better mobile voice and broadband services. In the Public Notice, the Wireless Telecommunications and Wireline Competition Bureaus announce the first auction (Auction 901) to award high-cost universal service support through reverse competitive bidding and seek comment on identifying geographic areas eligible for support, determining the basic auction design, and establishing certain other bidding procedures. Auction 901 will award one-time support to carriers that commit to provide 3G or better mobile voice
benton.org/node/113149 | Federal Communications Commission | FCC | Federal Register notice
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ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
BROADCASTING, DISCLOSURE AND DEMOCRACY
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
When we speak of “wireless” these days, we’re talking about cell phones and other devices we use on the go – many enabled with mobile broadband. But the term wireless first came into use about 100 years ago when radio receivers and transmitters were introduced. Radio broadcasters and, of course, television broadcasters are licensed by the federal government to use spectrum, the airwaves, to transmit their signals. With those licenses come requirements to serve the public’s interests, not just the narrow commercial interests of the licensees. This week we look at developments in broadcast regulation that could have a major impact on our democracy.
http://benton.org/node/113087/
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MCDOWELL ASKS ‘WHAT’S THE RUSH?’
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Federal Communications Commission member Robert McDowell says that the FCC's proposal to make TV stations' political files part of an online public database managed by the FCC is fixing "what appears to be a nonexistent problem" with "little to no" evidence that the information in that file is not already available to whoever needs to see it. He cautioned the FCC not to rush into such a regime. Commissioner McDowell pointed out that there is speculation the move was prompted by some wanting to track political spending in the wake of the Citizens United decision. He pointed out that decision reaffirmed that political speech was core protected speech. "Given this Constitutional context why would the government want to have such information loaded onto its website to monitor in real time?" he asked. He also said what he called an over-regulatory path would lead to economic hits on broadcasters. Compliance costs for putting the files online could average $120,000-$140,000 a year, he said, diverting funds from newsgathering and local programming, all arguments broadcasters have made to the FCC in opposing the move.
benton.org/node/113152 | Broadcasting&Cable
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ROMNEY’S TECH POLICY
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Rebecca Kaplan]
Appearing at home in front of an audience of technology executives and workers, Mitt Romney extolled the virtues of innovation, limited regulation, and low taxes to spur the US economy. "You have to have regulators in government who see their job as encouraging innovation in the private sector, as opposed to killing all potential risk," he told about 900 people at the Northern Virginia Technology Council. The crowd, often polite and quiet, interrupted the speech to clap at that line. They also applauded his calls to "staple a green card" to the Ph.D.'s that foreign students earn in the United States, or even abroad at top universities. Romney's speech sketched the broad outline of the business climate he sees as necessary for the U.S. to prosper, including the importance of allowing people the freedom to take risks, with few proposals specific to the technology industry.
benton.org/node/113140 | National Journal
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TELEVISION
THE VALUE OF BROADCASTING
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: Harry Jessell]
[Commentary] Fox executives visited the Federal Communications Commission to tell officials all about MundoFox, a Spanish-language broadcasting network, and ask for a needed waiver. (The Fox executives were seeking a waiver of the so-called network rep rules, which prohibit networks from selling national advertising on behalf of their affiliates. The long-standing rule is intended to protect affiliates from being coerced into rep deals with the networks.) That a company with the indisputable media acumen of Fox was investing millions of dollars into a broadcasting network makes hash out of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's contention that broadcasting is an obsolete medium and that its continued use of spectrum is of a waste — or at least the underutilization — of a precious natural resource. The rise of MundoFox also undermines the FCC's incentive auction for moving spectrum from TV to wireless broadband, a service that Chairman Genachowski sees as deserving of every hertz of spectrum it can get.
benton.org/node/113151 | TVNewsCheck
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RETRANSMISSION REFORM
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Representatives of rural telecommunications companies met with top Federal Communications Commission Media Bureau staffers to argue that the ancillary authority the FCC has asserted in taking steps to promote broadband deployment and adoption, and buttress its network neutrality regulations, can be used to justify reforming retransmission consent rules. Section 706 of the Communications Act gives the FCC the authority to "encourage the deployment of advanced telecommunications to all Americans," a line of authority the FCC has traced to encouraging wireless build-outs (pole attachment reforms, for one), migrating phone subsidies to broadband and codifying its network neutrality guidelines, although FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell has suggested that the invocation of 706 authority as a blanket defense of broadband-related regulations is skating on thin legal ice. The National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, OPASTCO (the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies) the Western Telecom Alliance and CenturyLink, said the FCC has the authority under the Cable Act to reform the rules, but also said it had Section 706 authority. They argued that retransmission consent was one of those barriers to broadband investment [the more they have to pay in retrans, the less they have for other things] that the FCC has said 706 gives the FCC the broad ancillary authority to redress.
benton.org/node/113145 | Broadcasting&Cable
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PATENTS
APPLE SUES MOTOROLA
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Dan Levine]
Apple sued Motorola Mobility in a US court in an attempt to stop Motorola from asserting some patent claims against Apple in Germany, according to the lawsuit. The suit, filed in a San Diego federal court, argues that Motorola's German lawsuit against Apple breaches terms of a patent licensing agreement between Motorola and Qualcomm. Apple accused Motorola of pursuing an aggressive international campaign of litigation that "flies in the face" of its promise to license standards essential patents on fair and reasonable terms. "Despite owning scores of standards essential patents, Apple has never asserted a standard essential patent in litigation," it said. Apple says that as a Qualcomm customer, Apple is a third-party beneficiary of Motorola's agreement with Qualcomm. Under that agreement, Motorola's rights under certain patents are exhausted, Apple argues. The case in U.S. District Court, Southern District of California is Apple Inc. and Apple Sales International v. Motorola Mobility Inc., 12-cv-355.
benton.org/node/113168 | Reuters
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COMPANY NEWS
ERASING THE BOUNDRARIES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Streitfeld]
The biggest tech companies are no longer content simply to enhance part of your day. They want to erase the boundaries, do what the other big tech companies are doing and own every waking moment. The new strategy is to build a device, sell it to consumers and then sell them the content to play on it. And maybe some ads, too.
benton.org/node/113207 | New York Times
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GOOGLE TESTING NEW DEVICE
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Casey Johnston]
Google is testing its own "next generation personal communication device," according to a document submitted to the Federal Communications Commission. Google is seeking the FCC's permission to test the device outside its labs on Bluetooth and Wi-Fi networks in and around the homes of 102 Google employees in Los Angeles (CA), Mountain View (CA), New York (NY), and Cambridge (MA).
benton.org/node/113147 | Ars Technica
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WHY GOOGLE IS GETTING INTO ENTERTAINMENT
[SOURCE: Fast Company, AUTHOR: Kit Eaton]
Everyone is suggesting that Google is busy designing and testing its own-branded hardware. This is fascinating on a number of levels, but one question about the rumor really stands out: Why? Google goes out of its way to appear to be serving the public, all the while gathering a precious resource it uses to earn its billions: Data. Ultimately this data from Google TV, from Google+, from Google Voice, from YouTube, from search, from Gmail and basically every other Google product turns into money for Google via advertising space. This space is sold to advertising partners on the understanding that a particular brand message is very precisely targeted at its potential market in a way that few other technologies can match, and so that every ad dollar spent is more efficiently employed. Basically Google wants to be off your desk, out of your phone pocket, and into your home. Because that's where even more advertising dollars can be found.
benton.org/node/113131 | Fast Company
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