Online social networking is “broken”, Google+ is Google’s attempt to fix this, and the service will change fundamentally all of the Internet giant’s products, from search to YouTube. These are the key messages to come out of a recent Q&A session between TechCentral and Google+ chief of staff Matt Waddell
Google’s sub-Saharan Africa office has reacted with dismay to allegations of fraud by its Kenyan operations, vowing to get to the bottom of the matter. The Mail & Guardian reported on Friday that Kenya’s largest mobile business directory Mocality, which has more than 170 000 listings and helps to
Google lost its status as the darling of the Internet earlier this week following an uproar over changes to its search results. Now the search engine and online advertising giant faces a fresh PR disaster after Kenyan mobile start-up Mocality, on Friday, accused
It’s become a rite of passage for the world’s biggest technology companies. As soon as you’ve fought your way to the top and become the darling of both stock markets and customers, regulators begin to cry “monopoly”. It happened to IBM in the 1960s
It’s the stuff of corporate legend. The Googleplex in Mountain View, California, about 40 minutes drive along Route 101 south of San Francisco, is the home of Internet search giant Google and more than 10 000 of its employees. Last Friday, TechCentral had the opportunity
In Douglas Adams’s famous Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series of science-fiction books, interstellar species use Babel fish — “small, yellow, leech-like” creatures that feed on “brain-wave energy” — to translate speech in real time. A team of developers at Google is
Well-known entrepreneur and investor and former Google SA boss Stafford Masie believes near-field communication (NFC) technology will fail as a mainstream transactional platform and local banks’ attempts to implement systems based on it are “farcical” and offer “no value”. NFC is a set of standards that
It has been a lively year for technology, despite the bad state of the world’s economy. Technology is now so intrinsic to both business and personal life that it might appear recession-proof. But this high-level view masks the Darwinian ferocity of the battles raging between the tech titans. The year 2011 will be remembered as
“Siri, what’s the best smartphone?” “The one you’re holding.” “Again, Siri, what is the best smartphone?” “I think you’ve already answered that question.” One more time, Siri. “You’re kidding, right?” There’s no doubt that Siri, the voice-driven “digital assistant” built into the iPhone 4S is the coolest feature
Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus, the first smartphone device running Android 4.0 (the oddly named Ice Cream Sandwich), lands on SA shores in the next few months. TechCentral got early access to the Galaxy Nexus and put the device through its paces. Apart from one major
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