Oodles and Oodles of Google

[scuzzman]

Google made 3 headlines today:

Google wants to offer cheap phone calls by broadband

Google is the latest dotcom business looking to increase its revenues by offering broadband internet users the ability to make cheap phone calls over the web.

The California-based internet search engine is doing some searching of its own, looking for a "strategic negotiator" to help the company deal with telecoms companies to put together "a global backbone network" which will help it increase the services it can provide.

Google, which carries almost half of all internet search queries globally, is one of many companies looking to offer residential customers the chance to use their existing broadband internet connections to make cheap phone calls using technology called voice over internet protocol (VoIP).

Google branching into video search service

SAN FRANCISCO Google's launching a new feature to extend its reach beyond the Web.

It's unveiling a new video service operated separately from the search engine offered on Google's home page. This one will allow you to find information and images broadcast on television.

Google will display up to five still video images from the indexed television programs, as well as snippets from the show's narrative.

It began storing information from A-B-C, P-B-S, Fox News and C-SPAN last month.

Rival search engine Yahoo also has been tinkering with a product that finds video available for Webcasts.

Google snaps up top Firefox programmer

Google has hired the lead programmer of the Firefox Web browser, the newest step in the search engine powerhouse's encroachment on Microsoft's turf.

Ben Goodger announced Monday on his blog that he took a job with Google on Jan. 10. The move is the latest of several that are fueling speculation that Google plans its own Web browser.

Firefox, which has cut into the dominant market share enjoyed by Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser, is a variant of the open-source Mozilla browser project originally begun in 1998 by Netscape Communications. Despite no longer being employed by the Mozilla Foundation, "My role with Firefox and the Mozilla project will remain largely unchanged," Goodger said on his blog.