Google announces Stadia game streaming platform March 19, 2019 Google has announced a video game streaming service called Stradia as the tech giant attempts to challenge Sony and Microsoft in the $140bn gaming market. Stadia will allow users to play games on their internet browser without having to download any content or buy a new console, Google announced at the Game Developers Conference in [...]
We don’t need to break up big tech to make a better internet – we just need more competition March 19, 2019 Last week saw the release of the government-commissioned Furman Review into digital competition. The commission, chaired by former Obama administration chief economic adviser Jason Furman, found that Google, Amazon, and Facebook don’t face enough competition. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, given the recent attention on tech giants’ business models by governments across the world. [...]
Advertising Week Europe begins today, so let’s remember that the creative industries are the unsung heroes of the UK economy March 18, 2019 When people think about television, they probably think of the BBC and UK programmes with global appeal, like Downton Abbey and Killing Eve. And even in literature and film, British characters are at the top of any list of the most memorable and loved creations – from James Bond to Harry Potter. Past and present, [...]
Google braced for EU fine over advertising competition breach March 15, 2019 The EU’s competition commission is set to hit Google with another fine following an investigation into its advertising business. Commissioner Margrethe Vestager will announce the fine next week following a probe into Google AdSense, the Financial Times reported, citing three people familiar with the case. Read more: Google removed 2.3bn ‘bad ads’ last year Google [...]
Pi in the sky: Google Cloud sets new Pi record with 31 trillion digits March 14, 2019 A Google employee has set a new record by calculating the value of the number Pi to more than 31 trillion digits. Emma Haruka Iwao, a developer advocate at the tech firm, beat the previous record of 22 trillion, set in 2016. Read more: IBM's Watson supercomputer launches tie-up with Volkswagen's SEAT The calculation, which [...]
Google removed 2.3bn ‘bad ads’ last year in fight against fake news and fraud March 14, 2019 Google removed 2.3bn ads last year for violating its policies on fraud and misinformation, the company said today. The total number of ads removed, which equates to roughly 75 ads per second, is almost 1bn lower than last year. Read more: Google paid $105m to executives accused of sexual harassment But Google said it had [...]
The World Wide Web is 30 years old – what will be the future of the internet? March 14, 2019 The World Wide Web turned 30 years old this week: on 12 March 1989, Sir Tim Berners-Lee submitted a proposal to the world’s largest physics laboratory, Cern, that outlined a new way to link, share, and manage information over the internet. As the main way that the vast majority of us access the online world, the [...]
Hammond calls for competition probe into digital advertising market March 13, 2019 The government will call on the competition regulator to launch an inquiry into the digital advertising sector amid concerns about the dominance of tech giants. Presenting his Spring Statement this afternoon, Chancellor Philip Hammond said he will ask the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to review the market and ensure Google and Facebook “pay their [...]
How the arrival of the World Wide Web has changed the mortgage market March 12, 2019 In 1989, the Swiss physics laboratory, CERN, was buzzing with information but it had one big problem: ideas, data and knowledge held by the lab was stored across incompatible computers. A young scientist, Tim Berners-Lee, envisioned creating a unifying structure for sharing information across its computer systems. He wrote a proposal for a linked information [...]
EU drops plans for digital tax as pressure builds for global reform March 12, 2019 The EU has scrapped plans to roll out a digital tax on tech giants due to opposition from several member states. Romanian finance minister Eugen Teodorovici today told representatives of EU governments the plan has been axed as no agreement could be reached after months of talks, Reuters reported. Read more: EU digital tax could [...]