Google

Google lnc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program. The company was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, often dubbed the "Google Guys", while the two were attending Stanford University as PhD candidates. It was first incorporated as a privately held company on September 4, 1998, and its initial public offering followed on August 19, 2004. 

At that time Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Eric Schmidt agreed to work together at Google for twenty years, until the year 2024. The company's mission statement from the outset was "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful", and the company's unofficial slogan – coined by Google engineer Paul Buchheit – is "Don't be evil". In 2006, the company moved to its current headquarters in Mountain View, California.

Google Inc.

It has been estimated that Google runs over one million servers in data centers around the world, and processes over one billion search requests and about twenty-four petabytes of user-generated data every day. Google's rapid growth since its incorporation has triggered a chain of products, acquisitions, and partnerships beyond the company's core web search engine. 

The company offers online productivity software, such as its Gmail email service, and social networking tools, including Orkut and, more recently, Google Buzz. Google's products extend to the desktop as well, with applications such as the web browser Google Chrome, the Picasa photo organization and editing software, and the Google Talk instant messaging application. 

Notably, Google leads the development of the Android mobile operating system, used on a number of phones such as the Nexus One and Motorola Droid, as well as Google Chrome OS, which is still under heavy development but is best known as the main operating system on the Cr-48 and is coming also to commercial Chromebooks on June 15. Alexa lists the main U.S.-focused google.com site as the Internet's most visited website, and numerous international Google sites (google.co.in, google.co.uk etc.) are in the top hundred, as are several other Google-owned sites such as YouTube, Blogger, and Orkut. Google also ranks number one in the BrandZ brand equity database. The dominant market position of Google's services has led to criticism of the company over issues including privacy, copyright, and censorship.

Social Game Developers Keen On Google Plus

Google announced its "field trial" of Google+ this week, many wondered if the search giant had finally crafted a successful social tool or whether it would fizzle like Buzz and Wave. That remains to be seen, but at this point, it appears that many tech-savvy early adopters are at least eager to try it out: invites are now closed.

"We've shut down invite mechanism for the night. Insane demand. We need to do this carefully, and in a controlled way. Thank you all for your interest!" Vic Gundotra, Google's senior vice president of engineering, wrote in Wednesday night post.

Google+ made its debut on Tuesday and aims to connect people via specific friendship circles, interests, location, and more. Those visiting the plus.google.com Web site are currently met with a notice that says Google is "testing with a small number of people," but those who want access can sign up to get an email when it opens to a larger group.

Even those who have been invited, however, are having trouble getting access. "Already invited? We've temporarily exceeded our capacity. Please try again soon," reads a note on the site.

Knight said that RockYou has been working with Google's "social gaming team," and had early access to the network. While he didn't reveal that any Google Plus games are in the works from RockYou, he said, "We are definitely energized by Google Plus and the work that is happening there...We look forward to watching their platform evolve, and to working with them on projects in the future."

For game developers we spoke with, it's the increased level of communication and the tailoring of that communication that is so promising. "Google Plus is a great step for Google. It's clear that they've built it from the ground up with the idea of improving communication with the social web in mind," said Arjun Sethi, CEO of Ravenwood Fair house Lolapps.

Another aspect of Google that has a unique appeal when compared to Facebook is that the company has its massive fingers in major sectors, as it's also owner of a web browser and mobile operating system. Imagine an army of new Android phones and tablets pre-installed with Google Plus, ready to let users access their favorite social games.

"Their approach is simple yet apparent across their Google products," Sethi said. "It will be exciting to see how millions of consumers start adapting to it. For Lolapps specifically, Google Plus will give us the opportunity to extend the ways that we are already innovating upon other social platforms and to see what Google has to offer."

Google itself, perhaps expectedly, isn't quite ready to talk about its gaming plans for Google Plus this early on. But what we do know is that Google has reached out to game developers already, and the gaming space is on the company's Google Plus radar.

"We don't have any specific details to share on our plans around incorporating games into Google Plus," said Google senior manager of global communications and public affairs Katie Watson in a statement. "But, it's important to keep in mind this is an ongoing project and this is just the beginning. We plan to add a lot of features and functionality to Google Plus over time. We're just excited to get started.

Internet censorship in Australia

Internet censorship in Australia currently consists of a regulatory regime under which the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has the power to enforce content restrictions on Internet content hosted within Australia, and maintain a "black-list" of overseas websites which is then provided for use in filtering software.

Since October 2008, the governing Australian Labor Party has proposed to extend Internet censorship to a system of mandatory filtering of overseas websites which are, or potentially would be, "refused classification" (RC) in Australia. This means that internet service providers would be required to block access to such content for all users. As of June 2010, legislation to enact this policy still has not been drafted. The proposal to introduce mandatory filtering has generated substantial opposition, with a number of concerns being raised by opponents and only a few groups strongly supporting the policy. Such legislation may therefore have difficulty passing through the Senate. With the announcement made on 5 August 2010 by Joe Hockey that the Coalition parties will not vote in favour of the policy should the Labor party be re-elected, it is now virtually impossible for the filtering scheme to pass through the Senate.

In November 2010, Department of Broadband, Communications and Digital Economy (DBCDE) released a document indicating that the earliest date any new legislation could reach parliament was mid-2013.

Current status (Federal law)

A collection of both federal and state laws apply to Internet content in Australia.

Broadcasting Services Act 1992

The provisions of Schedule 5 and Schedule 7 of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 inserted in 1999 and 2007 allow the Australian Communications and Media Authority to effectively ban some content from being hosted within Australia. Under this regime, if a complaint is issued about material "broadcast" on the Internet the ACMA is allowed to examine the material under the guidelines for film and video.

The content is deemed to be "prohibited" where it is (or in ACMA's judgement likely would be):

refused classification, or classified X18+

classified R18+, and not protected by an adult verification system

classified MA15+ and not protected by an adult verification system, where the user has paid to access the content.

Where content is deemed to be prohibited, the ACMA is empowered to issue local sites with a take-down notice under which the content must be removed; failure to do so can result in fines of up to $11,000 per day. If the site is hosted outside Australia, the content in question is added to a blacklist of banned URLs. This list of banned Web pages is then added to filtering software (encrypted), which must be offered to all consumers by their Internet Service Providers. In March 2009, this blacklist was leaked online.

A number of take down notices have been issued to some Australian-hosted websites. According to Electronic Frontiers Australia in at least one documented case, the hosting was merely shifted to a server in the United States, and the DNS records updated so that consumers may never have noticed the change.

Suicide Related Materials Offences Act 2006

In 2006 the Federal Parliament passed the Suicide Related Materials Offences Act, which makes it illegal to use communications media such as the Internet to discuss the practical aspects of suicide.

Copyright Legislation Amendment Bill 2004

The Copyright Legislation Amendment Bill 2004 was passed on 9 December 2004 by the Australian Senate, and extended copyright reform beyond the Australian-US free trade agreement (FTA). The impact will be felt most heavily by Internet service providers. The Internet Industry Association and EFA are actively opposing these efforts.

State and territory laws

Some state governments have laws that ban the transmission of material unsuitable for minors. In New South Wales, Internet censorship legislation was introduced in 2001 which criminalises online material which is unsuitable for minors. In 2002, the New South Wales Standing Committee on Social Issues issued a report recommending that the legislation be repealed, and in response the New South Wales government stated that the legislation "will be neither commenced nor repealed" until after the review of the Commonwealth Internet censorship legislation had been completed.

Notable examples

In 2002, New South Wales Police Minister Michael Costa attempted, without success, to shut down three protest websites by appealing to the then-communications minister Richard Alston. The Green Left Weekly stated these were Melbourne Indymedia and S11 websites, and that the Australian Broadcasting Authority (the predecessor to ACMA) cleared them of breaching government regulations on 30 October 2002.

Also in 2002, and under the terms of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975, the Federal Court ordered Dr Fredrick Töben to remove material from his Australian website which denied aspects of The Holocaust and vilified Jews.

In 2006, Richard Neville published a "spoof" website that had a fictional transcript of John Howard apologising to Australians for the Iraq War. The website was forcibly taken offline by the government with no recourse.

After the devastating bushfires in February 2009, details about an alleged arsonist were posted online by bloggers. Victorian police deputy commissioner Kieran Walshe has asked the state Director of Public Prosecutions to examine the possibility of removing these blogs from the web, as they might jeopardise any court case.

In March 2009, after a user posted a link to a site on ACMA's blacklist on the Whirlpool forum, Whirlpool's service provider, Bulletproof Networks, was threatened with fines of $11,000 per day if the offending link was not removed. The same link in an article on EFA's website was removed in May 2009 after ACMA issued a "link-deletion notice", and the EFA took the precautionary step of also removing indirect links to the material in question.

The 2009 winner of the George Polk award for videography shows footage of 26-year-old Neda Agha-Soltan being shot and dying during Iran protests. This footage has also been declared "prohibited content" by ACMA, attracting fines of $11,000 per day for any Australian website which posts a link to the video.

After the Australian government announced plans to mandate web filtering in Australia in December 2009, an anti-censorship website hosted on stephenconroy.com.au (The full name of the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy) was taken offline by auDA after only 24 hours of being published online.

In October 2000, Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) attempted under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) to obtain documents relating to the implementation of the web filter. While a few were released, many were not, and in 2003 new legislation, "Communications Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2002", was passed by the Liberal government and four independents, and opposed by The Greens and the Australian Labor Party. While the stated reason for the bill was to prevent people accessing child pornography by examining the blocked sites, this bill exempted whole documents from FOI, many of which did not reference prohibited content at all. EFA state that the bill was designed to prevent further public scrutiny of web filtering proposals.

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Stephen Conroy

Stephen Michael Conroy, born 18 January 1963 in Ely, Cambridgeshire, England is an Australian politician and the current Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy in the Gillard Ministry. He has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian Senate since May 1996, representing the state of Victoria.

Early life

Conroy's parents worked at an air-force base, where his mother Jean monitored radar and his father Bill was a sergeant. In December 1973 the Conroys moved to Canberra, where he attended Daramalan College. He obtained a Bachelor of Economics at the Australian National University in Canberra. His involvement in student politics was minimal, although he helped organise a rally against student fees.

Personal life

Senator Conroy is a Catholic, and is said to be socially conservative. While he voted against the abortion drug RU486 in a conscience vote, he has claimed not to have taken a conservative position on all issues:

"I think the point I made was that while I would prefer there to be a parliamentary framework for the RU486, I think it was, debate, if the actual issue was before Parliament I would probably vote for the distribution of the pill. People often say, oh no Steve's a conservative Catholic, but they won't ever find on my voting record something that backs that up. I voted against the Northern Territory's euthanasia legislation. I voted for some of the cloning debate. So I voted in, I like to consider the issues on their merits and I voted what some would characterise as conservatively and some would characterise as progressively on a number of issues.

Conroy and his wife, Paula Benson, have a daughter born in November 2006 with the assistance of an egg donor and a surrogate mother, both friends of the Conroys. The procedures were performed in New South Wales instead of their home state Victoria, where altruistic surrogacy is banned.

He was a national volleyball representative as a teenager and has been the President of Volleyball Victoria since 2004.

Politics

After university, Conroy worked as an advisor to Ros Kelly and Barry Jones. He moved to Melbourne to pursue a political career where he met Robert Ray, and served for a time as Superannuation Officer with the Transport Workers Union and as a City of Footscray councillor.

He was appointed to the Senate in 1996 when Gareth Evans resigned to contest a seat in the Lower House. In October 1998, Conroy joined the Opposition Shadow Ministry and became Deputy Opposition Leader in the Senate. He was Shadow Minister for Trade, Corporate Governance and Financial Services from 2003 to 2004, and became Shadow Minister for Communications and Information Technology in October 2004.

Conroy is a leading member of the Labor Right and was criticised in early 2006 by members of the Socialist Left and Simon Crean for working for the replacement of several long-serving MPs with new members, including Bill Shorten, Richard Marles, Mark Dreyfus, Nathan Murphy and Matt Carrick.

After Simon Crean's win in the Hotham pre-selection, where Conroy supported Martin Pakula for the position, Crean attacked Conroy repeatedly, calling on him to resign his position as Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate.

In April 2009, Conroy faced criticism after he made comments disparaging the ISP iiNet's defence in a Supreme Court case against a number of film studios and Channel Seven. Opposition spokesmen described the comments as prejudicial. After iiNet won, Conroy said it was disappointing the two sides had ended up in court.

In February 2010, he admitted using his influence to have a former Labor politician Mike Kaiser, take the position of Government Relations and External Affairs Executive with the National Broadband Network Kaiser was previously forced to retire from the Labor party due to electoral fraud.

Also in February 2010, he was reported to spent some time while on holiday with Kerry Stokes weeks before cutting license fees that are charged to free-to-air networks, including Stokes' broadcasting network, Channel Seven.

Portfolio

Conroy is Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy in the First Rudd Ministry. In that role, he is responsible for internet censorship, the proposed National Broadband Network, and the proposed switch to digital television as a complete replacement for analogue. In May 2010 he was appointed as a founding member to a new United Nations commission, the Broadband Commission for Digital Development.

Internet censorship

Conroy has faced severe criticism over his Internet censorship policies from various groups. While initially promoted as a way to block child pornography, the censorship policy has been extended to include legal material traditionally refused classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification, including sites depicting drug use, crime, sex, cruelty, violence or "revolting and abhorrent phenomena" that "offend against the standards of morality". On 19 March 2009 it was reported that ACMA's blacklist of banned sites had been leaked online, and had been published by Wikileaks. About half of the list was child-porn related; the remainder included sites dealing with legal porn, online gambling, euthanasia, Christianity and fringe religions; sites belonging to a tour operator, dentist and animal carers were also listed. Conroy described the leak and publication of the blacklist as "grossly irresponsible" and that it undermined efforts to improve "cyber safety".

In June 2009 he was named "Internet villain of the year" at the 11th annual Internet industry awards in the UK, for "individuals or organisations that have upset the Internet industry and hampered its development – those whom the industry loves to hate."

In December 2009 "Internet pranksters" registered the domain name stephenconroy.com.au which was swiftly removed by auDA raising concerns about auDA's political neutrality and the further potential for suppression of political speech after the proposed mandatory Internet filter is legislated.

In May 2010, Conroy was accused of deliberately misrepresenting iiNet's position with regards to the new internet filter.

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NBN to launch rural broadband service

Three towns on the Apple Isle last year became the first locations to be plugged into the network in its initial stage.

Deputy Tasmanian Premier Bryan Green on Thursday turned the first sod on the second stage of the NBN at Sorrell, east of Hobart.

Mr Green said that from March next year, services would be available on the super-fast fibre optic network to 11,000 homes in Triabunna, Kingston Beach, Deloraine, St Helens, George Town and South Hobart.

"Tasmania is proud to lead the nation when it comes to the rollout of the NBN," Mr Green said.

"We recognise the potential this technology has to eliminate the geographic divide between our island state and the rest of the world.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has welcomed the commencement of construction at the second release sites in Tasmania for the National Broadband Network (NBN) today, with construction commencing last month as scheduled, according to NBN Co.

In April, it was announced that Triabunna, Sorell, Deloraine, St Helens, Kingston Beach, George Town and South Hobart would be the next sites in Tasmania to receive the NBN, with the roll-out to cover approximately 11,150 premises.

NBN Co will be using a staged approach to construction between the five sites, which is expected to be completed in October. While construction was set to start at the end of May, Conroy only today welcomed the start of construction in Sorrell.

"The Gillard Government is getting on with the job of delivering enhanced broadband services to Tasmania, which has traditionally had the lowest proportion of households with broadband access," Conroy said.

The other stage two communities were set to start soon, except for Triabunna, where, NBN Co told ZDNet Australia, construction is already underway.

"Construction is underway in Triabunna after a period of make-ready work," NBN Co said. "Make-ready work has been underway in Sorrell for some time."

NBN Co is trialling a "network extension process" in the areas around the second release sites that would allow councils outside of the fibre footprint to pay additional costs to have fibre rolled out to them, rather than being served by fixed-wireless or satellite. However, CEO Mike Quigley has warned that the costs to roll out fibre to those areas may be prohibitively expensive for the councils.

Greece votes on where austerity axe falls

Yesterday's market rally on the back of the Greek parliament's decision to move forward with a €78 billion ($105 billion) package of cuts, tax rises and privatisations shows how much investors are hanging out for a resolution of Europe's debt crisis.

Yet it also suggests investors are not too familiar with the classics: the parliamentary vote wasn't a Trojan Horse, but it wasn't a gift from Greece that cured Europe's woes, either.

Last night, the parliament met again amid savage street demonstrations, this time to approve plans for the implementation of the austerity package.

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The numbers on the first vote suggested that this, too, would be approved. The second vote clears the way for the payment of another €12 billion to Greece out of last year's first rescue fund and adds momentum to talks about a second bailout package.

It sparked a worldwide share rally yesterday. In Australia, the ASX200 index shot up by 78.5 points to be above 4600 points again. The euro firmed, European bond spreads narrowed as risk tolerance increased and commodity prices and the Aussie strengthened.

The theory is that the Greek vote and the gathering plans for another rescue package head off a Greek government bond default. Such a default could have pitched Europe's other basket cases into crisis. A cascade of defaults could expand beyond the obvious suspects, Ireland and Portugal, into economies with more economic gravitas and financial counterparty risk, notably Spain and Italy.

Several banks and shopfronts were smashed, while a socialist dissenter who backed the government at the last minute, Alexandros Athanassiadis, was briefly assaulted by protesters after leaving parliament on foot.

Smoke billowed from a post office beneath the Finance Ministry before a fire was put out. Rioters set up burning barricades along Syntagma Square, where demonstrators have staged a sit-in for the past month. Streets were littered with chunks of smashed marble and ripped-up paving stones that had been thrown at police.

A burnt-out van remained within yards of parliament more than a day after youths set it alight.

A general strike that began on Tuesday paralysed the country, grounding planes, leaving ferries docked and stranding tourists during the busy summer season.

Police said yesterday that 49 officers had been injured, one seriously when he was hit in the face by a chunk of marble. Forty-three protesters were detained, with 17 arrested. Emergency services said they had treated 99 protesters and passers-by for injuries.

Across Europe, officials hailed the vote as an act of "national responsibility". "That's really good news," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on her way out of an economic forum in Berlin. Germany is Greece's biggest creditor.

Christchurch claims fail to shift IAG financial guidance

Insurance Australia Group's shares fell this morning as the investment community grappled with the implications of motoring body NRMA selling down its shareholding in IAG without consultation.

The two boards met last night to discuss the share sale along with other matters, including the almost $10 million a year that NRMA pays to IAG for shop front, IT and other distribution functions. It undoubtedly also discussed the story which appeared in BusinessDay today.

The NRMA and IAG have denied there is a conflict but failed to explain what drove the NRMA to sell the shares and therefore breach an important part of a complex set of business relationship agreements.

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IAG has not yet put out a statement to the ASX, but the two companies released a joint statement to the media late this morning to say they remain committed to a close ongoing relationship.

"Contrary to allegations made by unnamed sources in the media today, both organisations enjoy a positive relationship and at no time have conducted crisis talks of any nature," the statement read.

On Wednesday, Fairfax newspapers reported that 13 million IAG shares owned by NRMA had been sold for about $45m.

The NRMA provides large amounts of business to IAG through its 2.3 million members but it was suggested that senior ranks within the motoring organisation were contemplating a split after becoming frustrated with the small financial gain it ekes from its links with the insurer.

IAG and NRMA released a joint statement rejecting the rumours and any possibility of a split and declaring the relationship in good order.

NRMA later added that the decision to sell down its holding in IAG shares was based on financial advice.

"It's a relationship that has to work and although there is friction from time to time it works itself out," said one institutional investor. "This looks more like it's a case of ex-directors making noise because they have an axe to grind."

Analysts said it was unlikely a split would occur as it would require alterations to NRMA's and IAG's demutualisation agreement, which prohibits either company from providing duplicate products in Australia and New Zealand.

Banking and mining good choices for investors

ANY doubt the mining and resources sector underwrote the resilient Australian economy last year - and filled the pockets of canny investors - was clearly put to rest yesterday when miners and explorers came home comfortably as the best performing stocks of 2010-11.

A steady flow of positive economic news during the financial year from the sector's biggest and rapacious customer, China, as well as rising commodity prices and a particularly strong first half ensured that mining companies were the best place to park your money over the last 12 months.

Nine of the top 10 biggest share price gains in the S&P/ASX 200 Index were mining or mining services companies with Bathurst Resources posting the biggest gain of a 585.6 per cent return for the just completed financial year.

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Bathurst benefited from the excitement around coal and is developing a high quality hard coking coal project at the Buller Coalfield in the South Island of New Zealand.

Odd man out in the top 10 was Mesoblast (2010-11 return of 367.57 per cent), a biotechnology company which has hit the headlines and sizzled the portfolios of investors with its adult stem-cell technology that promises to repair damaged heart muscles and combat other degenerative conditions.

At the most extreme end of the market, New Zealand coal miner Bathurst Resources were the top of the class - catapulted more than 500 per cent higher.

Other energy and resource companies in the top 10 ASX stocks for the year include Iluka Resources, Linc Energy, Regis Resources and Sundance Resources.

Banks were the second best performing sector on the ASX with growth of 3.9 per cent. The big four all climbed, including NAB (10.1 per cent), CBA (7.5 per cent), Westpac (4.9 per cent) and ANZ (1.8 per cent).

Commonwealth Bank chief economist Craig James said the All Ordinaries course over the year was best described as "two steps forward one step back", with its high point achieved in March after staging a recovery from the Japanese tsunami when it hit 5064.9.

Since then it has lost ground with fears of a double-dip recession in the US and Europe weighing on sentiment.

The biggest loser on the ASX this year was uranium miner Energy Resources which plummeted 69.10 per cent on the back of the Fukushima disaster.