Google's new privacy link

he company has made a minor change to its home page, adding a link to its copyright line that leads to its Privacy Center.

Google’s decision, noted Thursday in a corporate blog and a public policy blog, is an attempt to quell a controversy over the posting of its privacy policy.

(Credit: Google)

Saul Hansell, a reporter with The New York Times, first brought the issue to light in May when he asked whether the company was violating California law by not posting a link to its privacy policy on its home page. Privacy advocates soon got involved. Google had maintained that it was doing nothing unlawful.

It’s not clear whether the change will satisfy the privacy advocates. CNET News.com sent an e-mail Saturday to representatives of three main groups involved, seeking their response.

Being a long holiday weekend, reaction so far has been sparse. At least one member of the blogosphere asserts that the link doesn’t resolve the issue because it doesn’t link directly to the privacy policy. Another concludes that the whole controversy was silly to begin with.

Google competitors Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, and Ask.com, by the way, all provide links to their privacy policies on their home pages.

NASA Shows Off Fireworks In Space

Before we completely bid adieu to our nation’s birthday, we here at Gizmodo would like to give one more shout out to the fourth of July. Seems like even the stars in the sky can’t resist putting up a display for good of’ American freedom. These red-white-and-blue pictures of Supernova remnant SN 1006 are what’s left over from a star explosion first observed by humans in year 1006.

The flash in the sky is a remnant of a blast 7,000 light-years away in the Lupus constellation. Scientists say that it was the brightest observed supernova in recorded history, and that the light from the explosion could be seen in the daytime for weeks afterward.

The supernova sent a shockwave that traveled outwards at nearly 20 million mph. In the 1960s, radio astronomers first detected the ring of material pushed out by the shockwave. With the latest imagery, released by the Hubble Space Telescope‘s science team, you can see a gossamer stripe with starlight shining through it – the rocket’s red glare indeed.

BlackBerry Pearl users can test voice input for Google Maps

As Google expands its product line for mobile services, the Mountain View-based company announced BlackBerry Pearl users now have the ability to use voice search

Specifically, users will be able to use Google Maps, getting directions or locations by voice instead of text searching Pearl owners can go to m.google.com/maps, press 0 to center the view of the map, press a side key and say a business name or location, and then release the button so the voice recognition software can begin to pull in results.

Google designed the software for use when typing is not possible, a user isn’t sure of the exact spelling of a name, or the name is too long.

For now, the service is available only for the BlackBerry Pearl — models 8110, 8210, and 8120 — but could be expanded to other BlackBerry devices, including the Curve. It’s currently described as "experimental," which means the results will not always be flawless.

"Like many of Google’s experimental features, we released this on a subset of phones in order to learn more about usage patterns and optimize the technology," a Google spokesperson told BetaNews Thursday. "We chose the Blackberry Pearl as it does not have a full QWERTY keyboard, making voice an even more appealing feature for users. We are always looking for ways to expand our offerings to more devices and to more users, but have nothing to announce at this time."

Several new phones have Google Maps integrated, though similar direction services are available from mobile phone providers. AT&T and Verizon Wireless both have GPS-based services available for a few dollars per month, but voice with Google Maps is free.

Nielsen research indicates mobile phone owners use Google Mobile for 9 searches per month on average, and Yahoo for 6.7, but mobile answers service ChaCha receives more than 40 searches per month. Utilizing a voice-in, text-out platform, ChaCha users are able to search for something by voice and get a response via text.

Google already uses speech recognition with its free Google 411 service.

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Diablo III demo leaked?

We’ve just been shown a page that appears to hold download information for a leaked Diablo III demo. The file has supposedly come from a beta tester.

We’re not going to post the link for obvious reasons, and we’re contacting Vivendi now.

Update: This appears to be bullshit. Apparently it’s the HD version of the gameplay movie from the Invitational, not a demo.