Tonight I received the following email to one of my Gmail accounts from Google and thought it would be interesting to those outside the US (where I’m currently visiting) who may not have received it:
Google rarely contacts Gmail users via email, but we are making an exception to let you know that we’ve reached a settlement in a lawsuit regarding Google Buzz (http://buzz.google.com), a service we launched within Gmail in February of this year.
Shortly after its launch, we heard from a number of people who were concerned about privacy. In addition, we were sued by a group of Buzz users and recently reached a settlement in this case.
The settlement acknowledges that we quickly changed the service to address users’ concerns. In addition, Google has committed $8.5 million to an independent fund, most of which will support organizations promoting privacy education and policy on the web. We will also do more to educate people about privacy controls specific to Buzz. The more people know about privacy online, the better their online experience will be.
Just to be clear, this is not a settlement in which people who use Gmail can file to receive compensation. Everyone in the U.S. who uses Gmail is included in the settlement, unless you personally decide to opt out before December 6, 2010. The Court will consider final approval of the agreement on January 31, 2011. This email is a summary of the settlement, and more detailed information and instructions approved by the court, including instructions about how to opt out, object, or comment, are available at http://www.BuzzClassAction.com.
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This mandatory announcement was sent to all Gmail users in the United States as part of a legal settlement and was authorized by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.
Google Inc. | 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway | Mountain View, CA 94043
It’s worth noting that the settlement only applies to US users. I’m not entirely sure why I was sent the email as I’m based in the UK, but perhaps I’ve not changed the location in the settings of one account.
I’ve recently been trying to clean up my inbox and make it more efficient and less full of interesting but none-the-less not high priority newsletters. This has meant a process of unsubscribing and analysing what’s really useful. So today I read with joy via Jemima Kiss over on the Guadian’s PDA blog a new development from Google: Gmail Priority Inbox.
“‘Priority inbox’ learns from your email usage patterns and begins to prioritise messages that it thinks you’ll be most likely to read. Your inbox is divided into three sections: important and unread, starred and everything else.”
Here’s the explanatory video:
It’s not reached my inbox yet, but I will be testing it out as soon as it does.
Whilst being one of the oldest screens in our lives the television set has remained for most of us a fairly passive medium, one where we sit back and watch in true, cool Marshall McLuhan style. But not for much longer if Google and Project Canvas have their way.
There have been a few attempts to change how televisions can be used. Back in the late 70s and 80s we had Ceefax and Teletext – some of you may even remember pressing the “Reveal” button to gain answers to quiz questions. When digital television came along such services developed into the “Red Button”, where text data and additional programme channels could be found. None of which is/was internet enabled, by the way.
There have been attempts to integrate the internet with the television for but for the most part the interactive benefits of the web have yet to really come to a lounge near you.
The reasons for this are numerous, but one of the big challenges (or even battles) has been over standards – in particular how broadcasters pipe data to ‘televisions’ and set-top boxes.
In parallel to these developments, games console manufacturers (significant as they are plugged into the television set) have successfully developed web-enabled boxes, which have now been in use for several years. This has meant not only that games can be played across the web in real-time with players across the world, but also that YouTube videos and the BBC’s iPlayer can be viewed via the television screen. Sky has taken the logical next step and partnered with Microsoft to create an online television service for XBox owners.
Yet, these services are still quite niche and rather limited. Enter Google and the BBC.
This week Google launched Google TV. A service they describe as, “a new experience made for television that combines the TV you know and love with the freedom and power of the Internet.” Here’s a video that explains more:
But before you get too excited… it needs to be made clear that Google TV is a platform. Its an answer to the standards problem mentioned above, so the purchase of either a new television or set-top-box will be required. Google has worked with Sony (TV manufactures), Logitech (set-top-box makers) and Intel (someone has to make the microchip for all this stuff to work efficiently).
“So hurrah, Google has sorted the standards problem out, go them!”
Not so fast. Also this week the Office for Fair Trading (OFT) announced that the BBC’s Project Canvas fell outside it’s ‘merger control jusitiction’.
Ok, so, ummm, what does that mean in reality?
Project Canvas is a proposed joint venture between the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five, BT, Talk Talk and Arqiva in creating “an open internet-connected television platform with common technical standards”.
For those unfamiliar with Arqiva, they are a “communications infrastructure and media services company”, who provide the infrastructure behind digital tv and radio in the UK and Ireland as well as other European countries.
The reason that the OFT had got involved is due to complaints by BSkyB and Virgin media on grounds that it created unfair advantage, explained here by the Guardian:
BSkyB has argued that Project Canvas, and particularly its backing by the licence fee-funded BBC, amounts to giving its rivals an unfair leg up in the nascent UK VoD market. Virgin Media has argued that despite its protestations to the contrary Project Canvas, which will bring VoD content to TV viewers with Freeview and Freesat receivers, is an unfair closed platform.
The intent of Project Canvas is that:
a consumer brand (not canvas) will be created, and licensed to device manufacturers, and internet service providers owners who meet the specifications.
‘Canvas compliant’ devices (eg set-top boxes), built to a common technical standard, would provide seamless access to a range of third-party services through a common, simple, user experience. [more here].
Project Canvas now awaits final approval by the BBC Trust, but it is now very likely it will get the go-ahead. Project Canvas will be like the BBC’s previous free-to-air brands such as Freeview and Freesat, which transformed take-up of digital television in the UK. What will be interesting to watch is if the same happens again or whether the likes of Google TV (or others) will win through on existing brand familiarity. To do so Google, in the UK at least, will very likely have it’s work cut out, should Project Canvas get the go-ahead.
THE BBC will forge closer links with social networking firms this week when it unveils a new version of its catch-up television service iPlayer that integrates with Facebook and Twitter.
