Foundem vs. Google: How one startup’s story shaped big tech regulations

Foundem vs. Google: How one startup's story shaped big tech regulations

For most startup founders, launch day is a nerve-wracking blend of excitement and worry. But for Shivaun Raff and her husband, Adam, that day in June 2006 turned into a nightmare they hadn't seen coming.

Their new venture, Foundem—a unique price comparison website they'd left stable careers to create—was finally live. But soon after launch, Foundem practically vanished from Google. Marked as spam by Google's algorithm, the site was buried deep in search results for terms like...

31 October 2024 | Artificial Intelligence

Android’s CameraX library gets dual camera functionality boost

A person wearing two cameras to illustrate Google updating the CameraX library for Android mobile developers with improved dual camera functionality.

Android developers are set to benefit from an update to the CameraX library that improves its Dual Concurrent Camera feature. The enhancement, introduced in the 1.5.0-alpha01 release, simplifies the implementation of simultaneous streaming from two different cameras.

Donovan McMurray, Developer Relations Engineer at Google, wrote in a blog post: "CameraX will now handle the composition of the two camera streams as well."

This expanded functionality builds upon the...

18 October 2024 | Android

Safe Coding: Google’s strategy reduces memory safety vulnerabilities

Google logo illustrating its Safe Coding strategy to reduce memory safety vulnerabilities to improve security.

Google has unveiled compelling data highlighting the efficacy of its "Safe Coding" approach in reducing memory safety vulnerabilities.

The tech giant's strategy, which prioritises the use of memory-safe programming languages for new code development, has yielded impressive results. Most notably, Android has seen a sharp decline in memory safety vulnerabilities, plummeting from 76% of all vulnerabilities in 2019 to just 24% in 2024.

This reduction is particularly...

26 September 2024 | Android

Android 15: Developer productivity and UX take centre stage

Google has announced the release of Android 15, making the source code readily available through the Android Open Source Project (AOSP).

Supported Pixel devices are set to receive the update in the coming weeks, with a wider rollout to devices from manufacturers like Samsung, Honor, and OnePlus planned for the coming months.

“Android 15 continues our mission of building a private and secure platform that helps improve your productivity while giving you new capabilities...

4 September 2024 | Android

GitLab is reportedly up for sale

GitLab, funded by Google, may be up for sale, sources say

GitLab has reportedly garnered interest from buyers and is considering a sale. As AI and cloud computing fuel acquisitions in the technology sector, these mergers and acquisitions are increasingly under review.

Company overview and market position

At a valuation of about $8 billion, GitLab has positioned itself as an essential player in the software development space. Its platform automatically integrates various tools and provides a common tool for software design by...

18 July 2024 | Artificial Intelligence

Genkit for Go: Google’s AI framework for gophers

Google has announced the alpha release of Genkit for Go, an open-source framework designed to empower Go developers ("gophers") in building AI applications and cloud services.

A result of collaboration between the Firebase and Go teams, Genkit for Go aims to combine Go's simplicity, scalability, and security with Genkit's robust libraries and tools.

Genkit for Go provides a unified generation API, native vector database support, and "Flows" for organising multi-step AI...

17 July 2024 | Artificial Intelligence

Google unleashes 2M token context and code execution for Gemini developers

Google has announced a series of updates to its Gemini AI platform, offering developers enhanced capabilities and access to more powerful tools. The tech giant is opening up the two million token context window for Gemini 1.5 Pro to all developers, introducing code execution features, and adding Gemma 2 to Google AI Studio.

The two million token context window, previously behind a waitlist, is now available to all developers using Gemini 1.5 Pro. This extensive context window...

27 June 2024 | Artificial Intelligence

Google: Third-party stores in Play Store would cost over $61M

In the wake of Epic Games' victory against Google last December, where a jury ruled that the Google Play app store and Google Play Billing constitute illegal monopolies, the tech giant has revealed the potential costs of implementing court-ordered changes to Android.

Google estimates that integrating third-party app stores within its Play Store would cost between $61.3 million and $137 million, according to documents submitted to the court. This comes in response to Judge James...

25 June 2024 | Android

Nokia and Google Cloud partner to equip developers with 5G app tools

Nokia and Google Cloud partner to equip developers with 5G app tools

Nokia has announced an expanded collaboration with Google Cloud aimed at equipping developers worldwide with the necessary network software tools to create innovative new 5G enterprise and consumer applications faster for their customers.

A key component is that Nokia's Network as Code platform, along with its developer portal, will now run on Google Cloud. This enhances the developer experience by providing access to Google Cloud's data, generative AI solutions, and capabilities...

19 June 2024 | Artificial Intelligence

Dave Burke retires as VP of Android engineering

After 14 years of steering Android's engineering efforts, Dave Burke has announced his retirement from his vice president role.

In a post on X, Burke said, "it's time for a change," signalling the end of his tenure that saw Android grow from a fledgling platform to a global powerhouse.

https://twitter.com/davey_burke/status/1801044329097818137

Burke joined Google in 2007 and became VP of Engineering for Android in 2014. On LinkedIn, he elaborated on his decision to...

13 June 2024 | Android