Google

Google may have blocked Android handset maker Motorola from using WiFi hotspot location data from Skyhook Wireless because it wanted to build a quality database of crowd-sourced location data, just as Apple’s been doing since iOS 4 was released, reveals an internal email correspondence leaked to The San Jose Mercury News. The email message reveals that Google CEO Larry Page asked for a clarification from Android chief Andy Rubin over the news that Motorola was planning on tapping Skyhook data to help their phones quickly determine geographical location. Steve Lee, Google’s location product manager, responded:

I cannot stress enough how important Google’s wifi location database is to our Android and mobile product strategy. We absolutely do care about this (decision by Motorola) because we need WiFi data collection in order to maintain and improve our WiFi location service.

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Google announced its second favicon change this year after having the same favicon for the past 8 years. Why is this so important?

Google Favicon, its most important 256 pixels

Google.com gets over 150 million hits a day. Every time someone visits Google in their search bar, they’ll see these pixels. This image also accompanies Google in your bookmarks and page history. Browsers that support a tabbed document interface typically show a page’s favicon next to the page’s title. The Microsoft Windows Shell also uses favicons to represent “Internet shortcuts” to web pages. If you save a Webpage to your iPhone, it will be represented by the favicon.

Google’s favicon is looked at millions of times every hour by Google’s customers all over the globe. You’d better believe those 256 pixels are important to Google and they’ve obviously spent some time thinking about it. Have you considered your most important 256 pixels?
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