As part of the Federal Trade Commission’s ongoing hearings into the future of journalism, Google’s chief economist Hal Varian gave a presentation on newspapers and their financial problems that is well worth taking some time to read (or view). The slide deck is embedded below, and Martin Langeveld has a great overview at the Nieman Journalism Lab that also includes a transcript of Varian’s presentation. The Google economist (who also wrote a blog post ) does a pretty thorough job of explaining the untenable position that newspapers currently find themselves in, and how it isn’t the Internet’s fault (in other words, it isn&#…

It goes without saying that Google has gigantic ambitions. We hear a lot about its various products but i’s hard to contextualize those efforts. A new video from Australian weekly news show, Hungry Beast , is a graphical representation of Google’s grand ambitions. It’s also a lot of fun. Especially when you see former Intel CEO Andy Grove call Google

Apple has secured a patent for a system that would enable consumers to use an electronic gadget — say, um, an iPhone — in place of keys to unlock their cars and front doors. It’s an effort that could finally move the needle for the short-range wireless connectivity technology known as near field communication . As first reported by the Daily Telegraph , Apple would allow users to enter a PIN code and wave the phone over an electronic pad fitted to a door. The system would be based on NFC, which has long been envisioned ( and trialed ) as a technology that could power retail transactions but has so far…

In the coverage of New York Times writer Zachary Kouwe, who resigned recently amid accusations of plagiarism, much has been said about the demands of writing for the always-on Web, and how this might have contributed to Kouwe’s missteps – something the writer himself referred to in a discussion of the incident as described by NYT public editor Clark Hoyt. But…

Since the start of March, some European versions of Microsoft Windows have been delivered with a so-called “browser ballot screen,” a screen designed to give users a choice of 12 web browsers instead of having Microsoft’s Internet Explorer forced on them. But while it’s already bringing new users to alternative browsers, criticisms of the screen are being leveled, too. The European Commission’s hope for the screen — which is the result of a settlement between it and Microsoft — was that it would preserve healthy competition among web browsers, and promote choices for users. And there are signs that progress is being made toward reaching those goals: Opera Software says downloads of its browser have tripled since the screen’s introduction. Rolf Assev, …

Do you feel that Internet access is a fundamental right? Four in five adults in more than 26 different countries agree with you, according to a new poll sponsored by the BBC World Service. The poll asked more than 27,000 adults about their attitudes towards the Internet, and found that 87 percent of those who regularly use the Internet believe that access should be “the fundamental right of all people.” More than 71 percent of non-Internet users…

The FCC will deliver its National Broadband Plan to Congress a day earlier than originally scheduled — on March 16. Also on that day, the five FCC commissioners will vote on a “mission statement” intended to represent the spirit of the submitted documents. The plan, which Congress called for as part of the stimulus package passed last year, will recommend ways to provide universal broadband access as well as encourage Congress and industry to use broadband in health care, education and energy efficiency programs…

Six months ago, it looked like mergers and acquisitions were heating up again. Om thought it was good news for startups , while I fretted about companies being pressured to make deals that didn’t make strategic sense. I needn’t have worried. After the usual end-of-year lull, deals are starting to be made again. And no sector is riper for deal-making than tech , especially those companies active on the web. Not only has the economy been stable for nearly a year, but web companies that survived have emerged with leaner operations and more cash on hand. Perhaps more importantly, the web has evolved to a point where …

Android news this week was dominated by Apple — in the form of a lawsuit Cupertino filed against Android phone maker HTC alleging that it infringes on 20 patents that Apple holds “related to the iPhone’s user interface, underlying architecture and hardware.” The move is clearly a shot at Google as Android is at the heart of all of the HTC phones named in the suit. I believe Apple is also running scared ahead of the Chrome OS release due out later this year. In the meantime, I had a chance …

Burbn , a stealthy startup that brings mobile location check-in gameplay (à la Foursquare and Gowalla) to the mobile browser, has raised $500,000 from Baseline Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. Burbn founder Kevin Systrom confirmed the round to us after it was written up in TechCrunch this afternoon. Burbn is a nifty little HTML 5 mobile web app that offers yet another place to tell your friends where you’re grabbing a coffee or seeing a concert. But what’s cool is how it runs through a mobile…

Mark Josephson, CEO of hyper-local news aggregator Outside.in , doesn’t seem all that concerned about AOL’s plans to pour $50 million into its own hyper-local news operation, Patch.com. That’s because while AOL is trying to generate its own custom content for dozens of small cities and towns in New York state and elsewhere, Outside.in is happy to take on the much less resource-intensive job of pulling…

Big In Japan, which has built an impressive lead in mobile barcode reading, today announced the acquisition of Snappr, a pioneer in the space but nonetheless one that has failed to gain much traction and floundered late last year. It’s a move that could go a long way toward finally moving the needle for quick response (QR) codes in the U.S. Big In Japan already boasts a huge hit with its ShopSavvy app , which enables users to scan traditional UPC barcodes to receive product and pricing information from online and local retailers. ShopSavvy was …

Barak Berkowitz, a veteran of Silicon Valley has joined Wolfram Alpha , an intelligent search engine by Wolfram Research, a Champaign, IL company founded by scientist Stephen Wolfram. He joins as the managing director, a position that is roughly equivalent to the title of chief executive officer. Wolfram, who is English by birth prefers the British corporate titles, it seems. I ran into Berkowitz at an industry event earlier today and learned about his new gig. Berkowitz left as the chairman & chief executive officer of Six Apart , San Francisco-…

Men are more positively inclined towards social media activities and use social networking sites more than women, according to what Liberty Mutual called a “ comprehensive national survey” of online behavior it released yesterday. This is somewhat surprising, since it’s the exact opposite of what other surveys have found, including a recent one from Royal Pingdom that looked at user profile data from some of the major social networks. Among the findings in Liberty’s survey, which was done as part of the Responsibility…

TripIt , the handy travel tool, has raised $7 million in a third round of funding led by Azure Capital Partners and O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures. “We were on a track to get profitable with that [previous] round but we’re just increasingly feeling like we’re scratching the service of the opportunity here,” CEO Gregg Brockway told us today. (TripIt has now raised $13.1 million, including its last round circa April 2008.) The new TripItgroups feature shows corporate users when their employees…