Google Getting into the Anti-Malware Game

I was just checking out my twitter feed today and found a tweet from Google on how they're helping out in fight against malware.  And honestly, I think its brilliant.

Here is the link to their blog post on the subject.  Reading through the article, I find the concept amazingly simple.  Google has found the proxy servers that host several of the Fake AV virus' out their and alerts a person when their computer is sending data to Google through those proxies.  The alert only appears in Google's search results, so even seeing it at all tips you off that your computer is infected, making the act of faking the alert to get people to install something worse almost pointless(I stress the almost because if some one is gullible enough, any fake alert is worth it to virus hosts).  A very simple way to help people purge their computers of virus'.

A Call Out For Reason

     As I read more about the Google-Oracle lawsuit that is going on right now, a suit which might decide the fate of the Android phones currently fighting the iPhone, I'm worried.  As I've read in this document, page 9 lines 25-27,  Oracle intends for all copies of anything Google is distributing that is using Oracles java must be disabled or destroyed.  Well, when you flip over to the Google Android source code page scroll down to the section that talks about building the source code, you can see that Android itself is built off of Java.  There is also a much more technical discussion here, from a gentleman that works in the programming field as a java programmer.  He discusses how Android is in fact an implementation of Java.
     Now, to why all of this worries me, and why it matters.
     The lines I sited from Oracles lawsuit documentation state their intentions should they win the suit.  From a source I have that is familiar with the previous owner of Java, Sun, a lawsuit like this one has been tried before, and Sun did win.  That sets legal precedence.  What Oracle wants isn't money, they want the destruction of any Android operating systems.  That means that a possible 33% of the US cellphone market could suddenly get shut down if Oracle wins.  That's staggering.  And as much as I feel the iPhone may have done the smart phone game better, I hate to see any open system go down because of stupid business decisions.
     So, as for the title of this post, I would like to make out a call for reason.  Anyone who thinks that software patents and copyrights on systems that are generally and publicly used do damage to the world of digital media and electronics, please post your comments in the form of a petition.  State that you've had enough!  Lets be heard.

The Death of Another Phone

     As the trend seems to deepen, more damage seems to be happening to major cellphone companies.  With what seems to be a disbanding of Motorola, and problems with HTC, its disheartening to hear that Google has ended the Nexus One phone.
     As I read today in this blog post from ZDnet, Google is now ending the Nexus One, and the web store that goes with it.
     I'm disappointed, because this means that one more of the iPhone's competitors has gone down.  I'm not against the iPhone or anything like that, but competition is the driving force behind innovation, and if no one competes with the iPhone, more problems like those plaguing the iPhone 4 will crop up.  And that isn't something anyone but their competitors should want.

The Silent Monopoly

     It's seems that the world of technology can't resist the creation of megalithic giants.  With Microsoft starting to fade into the background, though, many companies are eager to step up and take their place.  The most likely candidate:  Google.
     Google seems to be purchasing up everything they can get their hands on that relates to computing services.  They also seem intent on providing their customers with the most comprehensive collection of software solutions they can give away for free.
    But it also seems they are stooping to the old low of killing off their competition by buy-out, not out-sell.  That's the problem with providing everything you create for free.  If you aren't in it for the benefit of mankind, you have a hard time competing with your opponent.  So Google has just bought out the company that licenses the software void engine that their competitors use for IM clients.  Now Yahoo!, AOL, and many others will be paying directly into Google's pockets.
     Now whether this is good or bad, I can't say yet.  It may clean out what has become an over-crowded list of available IM clients, void services, and corporate digital telephony options, but it just might force an interdependency between technology companies.  If Google plays it smart, it will keep the existing client list that Global IP Solutions(the void company they purchased) comes with, and use it to keep their competitors paying into Google's pocket and not those of somebody else.  Google doesn't the traction in the IM department that AOL and Yahoo! do, so try and compete with them just by taking out the already underlying architecture won't actually do much.  Those two will just find someone else to licenses the technology from, and their existing customer base probably won't even notice.  But if Google continues on with the contracts that GIPS came with, they will continue to hold power over some of their biggest competitors in the market.  That's something I wouldn't toss aside lightly.