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Yahoo Japan says 22 million user IDs may have been stolen

Yahoo Japan, the country's largest Web portal, said up to 22 million user IDs may have been leaked during a hack that was discovered last week.
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At Google I/O, developer services hogged the spotlight

Forget Glass, self-driving cars or a smartwatch. Developers, not physical consumer products, were Google's darlings at the company's annual I/O conference this week.

Yahoo calls press conference amid Tumblr acquisition rumors

Yahoo has called a mystery press event in New York City on Monday afternoon, hot on the heels of rumors that it plans to buy Tumblr for US$1 billion.

At Google I/O, Glass wearers say 'trust us'

Google is facing some tough questions from Congress over the privacy concerns raised by Glass, its fledgling augmented reality system for recording and receiving information on the fly. But on the ground at the company's I/O conference for developers, attendees are largely enthusiastic about the technology.

Google weaves Larry Page's social strategy into Maps, Search

It became clear at Google I/O this week that Google is quietly but assuredly implementing CEO Larry Page's strategy to use Google+ to transform the entire Google experience.

Google has 'lapped Siri' with sci-fi-like search

Google laid out its plan for the future of search at Google I/O, talking about a search engine for mobile and desktop that not only answers your questions but has a conversation with you and offers information before you even ask for it.

German online copyright law to take effect in August

A German online copyright law that will give publishers the exclusive right to the commercial use of their publications on the Internet will come into effect on Aug. 1.

Google to boost speed, cut data use on mobile devices

Google has shown off new features that can reduce data consumption and improve Web performance on Android-powered mobile devices, drawing partly from capabilities already supported in the Chrome desktop OS.

A soft-spoken Larry Page makes surprise appearance at Google I/O

Google CEO Larry Page made a surprise appearance Wednesday at the Google I/O conference, where he overcame problems with his throat to take questions from developers in the audience for almost an hour.

With 'Okay Google,' voice-enabled search hits the desktop

Just by saying "Okay Google," people will soon be able to search using voice commands on their Chrome-powered desktop and laptop computers, Google said Wednesday.

Mobile Players Offer a Mix of Messages in TV Ads

Apple, Samsung and Microsoft take divergent paths to selling their smartphones via TV commercials. The winning approach: Focus on your own unique features, and resist potshots at the competition.

When Marketing with Social Media, One Has to be a Little Wary:R. Balakrishnan (Balki)

R. Balakrishnan (Balki)

More innovation means less control. Is that bad?

Innovation in mobile computing, search and social media increasingly means taking control away from users, says Mike Elgan, but at what cost?

Do social media ads really work? We put them to the test!

Social media sites already offer free advertising in the form of tweets and Facebook posts, but these tools can only take your brand so far. The next step involvesA paying forA social media ads, and if you're considering this option, you're probably most concerned with one big question: What will my return actually be?A Will spending money on an ad on Twitter or Facebook bring more customers to my business than the same amount spent on Google AdWords?

Predicting the Tech Future

For my recent column of predictions for 2013 I polled a huge number of IT people to see what they are expecting, and ended up getting more than 400 responses.

Google's antitrust settlement means few changes

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission's antitrust settlement with Google will create few changes in the way the company operates, both critics and fans of the deal said.

Why Oracle bought Eloqua, and what it means for the market

Oracle surprised many tech industry observers by announcing Thursday it would pay US$871 million for marketing automation software vendor Eloqua. The move seemed a bit unlikely given the amount of sales and marketing software Oracle already had.

Will Google go the way of Microsoft? Ask the FTC.

The antitrust suit that the Justice Department filed against Microsoft in the 1990s left the company distracted and unable to plan for the future. Could the same thing be in store for Google?

How to Deal With Panda, Penguin and Other Google Algorithm Changes

In an effort to improve search result quality and punish black-hat SEO, Google has been making big changes to its algorithms, and more updates are likely on the way soon. Here's how to prepare.

Keep Your Website Off of Google's Naughty List

Google's principal engineer, Matt Cutts, dropped serious hints in March about an imminent change to Google's algorithm that will penalize websites for being "overly optimized". Unfortunately, he didn't specify exactly what "overly optimized" means, or when this big shift will come--but you'd be wise to prepare your website now.