Technology And Tech News

Canada's Competition Bureau is suing Google for alleged anti-competitive conduct in its online advertising.

In a statement, the country's antitrust watchdog alleged Google had illegally linked two advertising tools to maintain market supremacy and used this dominant position to distort ad auctions by preferring its own tools.

The agency said it had filed an application with the Competition Tribunal, a court-like independent body, that would require Google to sell two of its ad technology tools.

In a statement Google said the complaint out of Canada "ignores the intense competition where ad buyers and sellers have plenty of choice and we look forward to making our case in court".

"Our advertising technology tools help websites and apps fund their content, and enable businesses of all sizes to effectively reach new customers," said Dan Taylor, vice-president of global advertising.

This case centers on online web advertisements - the ads shown to users while visiting other websites.

Digital ad inventory - the space website publishers make available for sale - is often bought and sold through automated auctions using digital platforms.

These platforms are known as ad tech tools, while the entire set of tools used through the purchasing process are known as the ad tech stack.

According to the Competition Bureau, an investigation found that Google had "abused its dominant position" as the biggest ad tech stack in Canada.

“Through a series of calculated decisions, taken over the course of multiple years, Google has excluded competitors and entrenched itself at the center of online advertising,” the Competition Bureau said in its notice announcing the suit of Thursday.

“Google’s near-total control of the ad-tech [software] is a function of premeditated design and conduct, rather than superior competitive performance or happenstance.”

The agency said it was asking the Competition Tribunal to force Google to sell two of its ad tech tools, and pay a fine of as much as 3% of the company’s global revenue "to promote compliance" with Canada's competition laws.

Google has 45 days to file its response with the tribunal.

Can a navigation app be held responsible if a user gets into an accident?

That is the question being asked in India after three men died when their car veered off an unfinished bridge and fell on to a riverbed in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

Police are still investigating the incident, which took place on Sunday, but they believe that Google Maps led the group to take that route.

A part of the bridge had reportedly collapsed earlier this year because of floods and while locals knew this and avoided the bridge, the three men were not aware of this and were from outside the area. There were no barricades or sign boards indicating that the bridge was unfinished.

Authorities have named four engineers from the state's road department and an unnamed official from Google Maps in a police complaint on charges of culpable homicide.

A spokesperson from Google told BBC Hindi that it was co-operating with the investigation.

The tragic accident has spotlighted India's poor road infrastructure and sparked a debate on whether navigation apps like Google Maps share responsibility for such incidents.

Some blame the app for not providing accurate information while others argue that it is a larger failure on the part of the government for not cordoning off the place.

This is an operating system [in the public domain], with a user interface as simple as MSDOS

The Department of Justice says that Google must divest the Chrome web browser to restore competition to the online search market, and it left the door open to requiring the company to spin out Android, too.

Haven't been following this drama, this doesn't sound fair to Google (not that I care or like the company) as there are other search engines and browsers and mobile operating systems.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/46100822

Reddit says its daily users are up 47 percent year-over-year. Reddit just turned a profit for the first time. As part of its third-quarter earnings results released on Tuesday, the company reported a profit of $29.9 million, along with $348.4 million in revenue — a 68 percent increase year over year.

https://youtu.be/FhmHUGdCY00

kv4p HT is a homebrew VHF radio that makes your phone capable of voice and text communication completely off-grid with at least a Technician class amateur radio license.

The radio simply plugs into the USB C port on your Android smartphone and transforms it into a fully-fledged handheld radio transceiver. It's completely open source (GPL3): the Android app, ESP32 firmware, PCB designs, and 3D printer files.

It's small enough to fit in your pocket and take anywhere, and since it has no internal battery it's the perfect radio to put in a go-bag or your car's glove compartment.

via HackerNews

any hams see this, and does it look viable?