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Google's Bots Cause United Stock Slump?

On Tuesday, Google spokesperson Gabriel Stricker said the episode began because the story did not have a date on it when the Google News search program came across it early Sunday morning.

"We indexed the story in Google News," Stricker said. As part of that process, the Google search program assigns a date to a story.

Tribune Co.'s spokesperson, in turn, argued that the key event was when Google's "bot" put a Sept. 6, 2008, date on the story. That date made the story appear fresh when it was accessed through Google News, the spokesperson said.

"After the story appeared on Google News, traffic went through the roof," said Gary Weitman, a spokesperson for Tribune Co.

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New kid in town

Chrome is a challenge to Microsoft's browser, used by about three-quarters of Web surfers. But it could equally be called a challenge to Microsoft's Office software suite, because what Google really wants to do is to make the browser a stable and flexible platform that can do practically everything we want to do with a computer, from word processing and e-mail to photo editing.

To strengthen that effort, Chrome was designed to improve on the way other browsers handle JavaScript, one of the technologies used to make Web pages more interactive and more like desktop software applications. Google's online word processing and spreadsheet programs use this technology, but it's also very widely deployed on Web pages to do less sophisticated things, like drop-down menus. More here

Cell Phones Make Headway in Education

The iPhone and other smartphones are gaining the attention of education professionals for their potential as learning tools. Cell phones have long been considered classroom distractions, but the ability of smartphones to run a wide variety of applications opens the door to greater possibilities.

So-called smartphones -- such as the iPhone, which in the U.S. is authorized to run on the AT&T (NYSE: T) Latest News about AT&T network New HP LaserJet P4014n Printer Starting at $699 after $100 instant savings. -- offer myriad new capabilities, including Web access, e-mail and access to educational software. "The time is approaching when these little devices will be as much a part of education as a bookbag," write the authors of a report last year by the nonprofit New Media Consortium, which studies emerging technologies likely to have an impact on teaching.

A well-equipped cell phone with a foldout keyboard could even supplant a laptop in classrooms, says Bill Davidson, senior vice-president for global marketing at Qualcomm, which makes cell-phone software and chips.

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