Google turns a blind eye to under-age searching
Drinking, gambling and… searching?
It seems the list of proscribed activities for the younger set is longer than you thought. A sharp-eyed blogger at CNET spotted last week that Google’s official terms of service explicitly bar anyone under the age of 18 from using any of its services. That’s right: no hanging out on Orkut, no peeping at YouTube, and definitely no searching for someone else’s homework to cut and paste. Read more
Why you should think twice before hiring a Googler
Googlers are in high demand. Doug Merrill, head of internal systems, has just moved over to EMI (while it’s tempting, after a recent senior departure or two, to start talking about a brain drain, the Google talent-magnet is still exerting Silicon Valley’s strongest pull.)
But how hard should other companies try to lure away Google talent? A prominent Silicon Valley headhunter I spoke to this week offered a contrarian view: that Google is like Microsoft in the 1990s, or IBM in the 1980s. It is so dominant in a particular market that it can’t help making money. That has created what this headhunter describes as a “Google bubble.” Read more
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Richard Waters has headed the FT's San Francisco bureau since 2002 and covers Google and Microsoft, among other things. A former New York bureau chief for the FT, he is intrigued by Silicon Valley's unique financial and business culture, and is looking forward to covering his second Tech Bust.
Chris Nuttall has been online and messing around with computers for more than 20 years and since 2004 has reported from the FT's San Francisco bureau on semiconductors, video games, consumer electronics and all things interwebby.
Maija Palmer has been writing about technology for the FT since 1999 and is fascinated by cybercrime, privacy and all the other issues of the information society. Based in London, she covers European tech companies and hopes that they won't all get acquired by American rivals.
Robin Kwong is the FT's technology, media and telecoms page editor in London. Formerly he was the Taipei correspondent and wrote about the companies that manufacture the vast majority of the world's computers and gadgets. He is interested in the intricacies of the technology supply chain and how China is increasingly changing the tech landscape.
Tim Bradshaw is the FT's digital media correspondent, and has just moved from London to join our team in San Francisco. He has covered start-ups such as Twitter and Spotify, as well as the online ambitions of more established media companies, such as the BBC iPlayer. He also covers the advertising, marketing and video-game industries. Tim has been writing about technology, business and finance since 2003.
