July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

If regulators really want to deter Google from doing naughty things, they can start by fining the company more money.

Germany is fining Google $189,230 (145,000 euros) over the company’s public Wi-Fi data snooping, the news of which emerged in 2010.

Google, which called the snooping a mistake before pinning the blame on a rogue engineer, says it’s still sorry that it collected the data — even if it didn’t mean to.

“We work hard to get privacy right at Google. But in this case we didn’t, which is why we quickly tightened up our systems to address the issue,” Google said in a statement to VentureBeat

Google’s Street View cars weren’t just taking photos of city streets.

“The project leaders never wanted this data, and didn’t use it or even look at it. We cooperated fully with the Hamburg data protection authority throughout its investigation,” Google said.

The fine comes a month after Google made a $7 million settlement with U.S. states over the Wi-Fi snooping, and a year after the FCC fined the company $25,000 for obstructing its investigation of the case. Clearly, this is proving to be quite the costly mistake for Google.

But has it been costly enough? “In my view, this is one of the biggest data protection rules violations known,” Hamburg data regulator Johannes Caspar  told Bloomberg in a statement. Fining Google $189,230 for the “biggest data protection rules violations known” doesn’t seem particularly severe — especially since Google pulled in $14 billion last quarter.

Fortunately for Google, however, German data misuse fines are capped at 150,000 euros, which means German regulators couldn’t have fined Google much more money if even if they had tried.

Still, privacy and data charges against Google persist. Earlier this month the European Union recommended that member states start their own investigations into Google over the unified privacy policy the company introduced last year.

Photo: Flickr/Justin Taylor 

Google might be settling its lawsuit with the FCC soon, distributing a total of $7 million to representatives for 30 different states across the U.S. for “mistakenly” collecting Wi-Fi data through its Google Street View vans.

Google’s Street View, the feature on its maps product that lets you see a 360 image of the location you’ve searched, doesn’t just appear out of thin air. The company employs hundreds of vans to drive around your neighborhoods, collecting information about it, as well as pictures. But in 2010, the company admitted that during this collection process, the technology in the vans also picked up data from people’s Wi-Fi in their homes and businesses. The FCC began an investigation and found that a “rogue engineer” created the software which grabbed the personal information.

According to All Things D, however, the resulting lawsuit may be coming to a close shortly. The states are represented by a number of attorneys general who will accept the cash on their behalf. Thus far Google has not deleted any of the data, saying that it is awaiting approval from the government to do so.

Other countries, such as Ireland, have also gotten on Google’s case about the siphoned data. In this case, Google did delete the data.

Google street view van image via jdnx/Flickr

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

Marcus Thielking is cofounder of Skobbler, a provider of mobile map-based solutions that use OpenStreetMap data.

Map lovers, 2012 was our year.

From Apple unveiling and then apologizing for Apple Maps, to the emergence of the collaborative and crowdsourced OpenStreetMap, for those fascinated by digital mapping technologies, 2012 was a critical point in time. And with location-based services powered by map data expected to reach 1.4 billion users by 2014, you can bet the innovation and competition we witnessed will continue in 2013.

So, what’s next? Here are the top five moments I expect we’ll see in the digital maps space in 2013:

1. OpenStreetMap gets better

With over one million contributors to date, a number that has doubled approximately every 14 months since 2005 and shows no signs of slowing, the OpenStreetMap — affectionately known as the “Wikipedia of maps”— is quickly becoming one of the most popular mapping platforms on the planet. And, the more users lend the project their location expertise, the better OpenStreetMap’s data will ultimately turn out to be. In fact, today, OpenStreetMap has already become the most detailed digital map available in countries like England and Germany. With its ever-increasing user base, the data can only continue to improve. This is hugely important for developers seeking to build their own location-based products and services.

Beyond just being cost effective, OpenStreetMap delivers levels of detail, accuracy (beyond just the street networks) and flexibility not possible with some of the more traditional map players. As the platform advances thanks to user growth, developers in need of mapping data will continue to abandon relationships with guys like Google Maps, TomTom and others, integrating OpenStreetMap data into their own offerings.

2. Apple Maps will get better, too

Apple Maps has been categorized by many as the company’s largest black eye (at least recently). Not only did the app suffer from a data issue, but it was clear the company didn’t have the right team in place building the product, as it couldn’t fully deliver on the fundamentals (like putting bridges in the right places). It was a colossal letdown that led to firings and public apologies, and I guess this should be the case, given this, this, or this. Here’s the thing, though, for all of the criticisms, Apple Maps will only get better.

Whether it will come internally (unlikely), or from the integration with an external mapping party of some sort (see Apple’s rumored acquisition of Waze, although, I think a company like TomTom makes more sense given their base technology and mapping talent), look for Apple to improve on its service. Google knows this and won’t stop updating its own map so as to take full advantage of its head start and ensure that its market position will remain solidified. Apple doubters remember, though – and there are quite a few doubters out there today – the company has long been a bastion of innovation in every arena, so expect the Maps product to slowly find its way back and be a very big player in 2013.

3. Google Maps will lose some of its luster

Apple Maps was the best thing ever to happen to Google Maps. Upon its release, people realized just how valuable Google’s service was through comparison. They also realized how important maps were more generally. For the end-user, the effort and skill required to produce a digital map was, for once, clear. The press for Google was unsurprisingly positive. It couldn’t have asked for a better situation.

However, a mere few months prior, the seemingly unflappable Google was the one on the receiving end, seeing negative press for Google Maps after deciding to charge high-volume users of its maps API. The moment positioned Google as the corporate entity that it is, rather than a driver of innovation. That’s when we started to see defections en masse from Google Maps to the OpenStreetMap, with Foursquare, Wikipedia, and even Apple, leading the charge. While Google has since reversed course, it’s an issue that will crop up again soon and perhaps shift the narrative – in a negative way – for Google.

4. Partnerships to differentiate

For end users interested in a great mapping experience, whether it’s for navigation, direction-finding, and the like, maps can begin to seem redundant. More competition means more mapping services, but it should also mean more originality, allowing one platform to differentiate itself from the next. Google Maps, for instance, has Street View as a feature and is rolling out 3D functionality to stand out from a flood of new challengers. However, in order to be truly unique in an increasingly cluttered space, there are more creative opportunities for map makers to take advantage of, namely through partnerships with other location-based services that are eager to benefit from the scale afforded through map services.

For instance, take Nooly, a startup that allows you to view the weather, in real-time, for any point of interest (it’s location-based via GPS and seems to use Google Maps, currently). Partnering with them and leveraging their API would provide a great end-user benefit and allow a map service to carve out a true point of differentiation relative to other players. I think we’ll see more partnerships like this throughout the year.

5. More maps to come

With mobile proliferation, maps are becoming more and more essential each day, therefore, it only makes sense that more services will pop up, and that more existing companies will want a piece of the pie (Apple entering the fray is really just the beginning). This was especially true in 2012 – think Amazon’s November announcement – and it will only continue in 2013. Could Facebook, for example, enter the mapping space? The recent debut of its Graph Search function could make that a possibility, given location’s centrality to any search platform (and, if Facebook ever does decide to move forward with its own smartphone, a map will be core to that service, as well).

Now, these are just a few possibilities I think we’ll see in the mapping space this year.

Did I miss anything? What do you think will be some of the key map moments in 2013?

photo credit: Carla216 via photopin cc

On the one hand, it’s incredibly simple.

A web page embeds a Google maps street view URL. You click a door that says “Take me somewhere else.” And Google Maps Street View shows you another place on the planet.

On the other hand, it’s simply incredible.

A company — and thousands of volunteers – has built a repository of millions of images, updated frequently, of cities and streets, and mountains all over the world. Not to mention places like Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and Hawaii’s Hanauma Bay, plus portions of the Amazon rainforest. And with a click of a button you can see the south pole, or China’s Great Wall, or the Ginza district of Tokyo … or the surface of another planet.

Try it here:

How does it work?

“It basically works by using an i-frame, which gets dynamically populated with a full-screen Google Maps Street View URL,” Jordan Peck, one of the people behind the project told me via email. “The app loads one of 90 locations, randomizing the selection every time the user clicks ‘Take me somewhere else.’ The door design itself, as well as the on hover animations use CSS3.”

Simple. And spectacular.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

As Apple plays catch up to Google Maps, there is one quick fix it can make: Let users make minor corrections and publish them immediately.

Take a look at this map:

Kuleto’s is facing the wrong street. iOS Maps shows it on O’Farrell Street. It’s address and entrance are actually on Powell Street, around the corner. (Google Maps has it correct.)

Such errors are common on maps. They exist for a number of reasons:

• At its very best, GPS is accurate to about 7-9 feet. But in urban canyons, accuracy can drop off because satellites are obstructed by tall buildings.
• Some businesses use vanity addresses. In New York City, it’s fashionable to have an address on Park Avenue, but the actual building entrance may be on 48th Street.
• Map makers don’t record the actual entrance to every business on a street. Generally, in the U.S., they record the block numbers and which side is even and which side is odd. The intermediate addresses are approximated.

As a result, errors on a block are common.

There’s a simple fix: Let users pick up the business and move it to the right place and automatically publish the results. Apple does allow users to report errors. I moved Kuleto’s to its correct location, but Apple hasn’t processed the update yet.

User-generated content is fraught with problems and opportunities for mischief. If you let people delete businesses, some will delete their competitors or businesses they don’t like. If you let people add businesses, they will spam your results with dummy businesses. The trick is to balance the mischief with the potential for more accurate data. This is something that Google has a lot of experience at. It’s been fine-tuning how it handles user-generated content in Maps for years. In its core search business, it’s been dealing with spam for more than a decade.

Letting people move existing businesses within the margin of error of current mapping methods strikes me as an acceptable balance.

Otherwise, the only quick way for Apple to verify the change is correct is to use Google’s Street View to get visual confirmation. It might face some legal issues with that. (Disclosure: I have Apple stock.)

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

Google’s Street View is back on iPhone, with the help of the Web.

Street View is a product that has puzzled me for a long time. It’s technologically an impressive feat, but why do people actually care about it? What are the use cases?

Generally the only time I use it with any regularity is when I’m looking for an apartment. It’s a quick and easy way to get a feel for the neighborhoods that I’m considering. It certainly beats driving around in San Francisco traffic. But looking for apartments is not something I do frequently.

I asked followers on Twitter and friends on Facebook how they use Street View. It turns out that house hunting is one of the more common use cases.

Here’s what people are using Street View for:

“I’ve used it to evaluate neighborhoods I’ve moved to. Result: signing a lease having never visited the place,” wrote Christopher Mims.

“When looking for hotels and when meeting people in unfamiliar settings. Mostly it’s not a daily utility,” wrote Greg Sterling.

“Not often — only to see my house. and I saw my mom standing in front of it – LOLd for a bit,” wrote @m_Keef.

Others used it to plan out their driving trips.

“Whenever I am driving to a new address, I like to “look” at the house or business so it’s easier for me to spot when I get there,” wrote Sriram Chatrathi.

“I use it mostly to confirm destinations,” wrote Jason Hart. “I also use it occasionally to “visit” places I used to live or places I’m planning to go. I use satellite view less but for the same purposes. Also, I’ll use it to figure out where parking lot entrances and exits are.”

“I use it to determine which way the metro station exit faces when mapping out directions. I hate getting off the escalator and not knowing which way to start walking,” wrote a friend on Facebook.

Despite being popularized by Google, other companies had Street View-like functionality earlier. Before Google existed as a company, I was working for a newspaper in Minneapolis. We discovered that a local company had driven every street in Minneapolis, taking pictures of every house. We incorporated that data into our real estate search product. Amazon’s A9 search engine had Block View in 2005. I was talking to a Google engineer at the time of the A9 launch, and he thought Block View was ridiculous because driving cars around cities to capture the imagery would never scale. Not only has Google driven cars around cities, it’s also taken to bicycles, trikes, and snowmobiles.

I also discovered some creative uses for Street View among my friends.

“I just used it to confirm my last US address for my election ballot request,” wrote a friend who moved to Canada. “I wasn’t sure of the address, but I punched in what I remembered and located my old house. Faster than digging up old documents.”

“It’s sometimes refreshing to judge old acquaintances (bullies, etc.) by their images on Street View,” wrote the same friend who was scoping Metro escalators. “(Don’t tell me you’ve never done this — I’ll call you a liar.)”

Interested in more on mapping? Tune in to NPR’s Science Friday today at 3 Eastern, noon Pacific to hear me talk about the state of online maps.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

By now you’ve either heard about how inadequate the native iOS 6 Maps app is compared to the old Google Maps app or experienced it yourself. Well, some good news is in the pipeline for those still suffering.

Google plans to add the Street View feature, which shows what an actual location looks like from the ground level,  to its iOS Maps web app. This is according to AllThingsD’s Walt Mossberg, who mentioned the details within a review of the native Google Maps app on Android.

The old Google Maps app didn’t have the Street View feature, which means iOS device owners running the latest operating system may have one more reason to run back into the arms of Google. This isn’t even the first upgrade Google has made to remind people how awesome the service is by comparison. Last week, the search giant added high-res 45-degree imagery in 51 cities to Google Maps.

The new feature should be available on the web app Thursday, according to Mossberg. He added that the company still intends to create a native version of Google Maps for both the iPhone and iPad at some point in the future, which lines up with comments made last week by Google Chairman Erik Schmidt.

Apple Maps received almost immediately ridicule from iPhone owners when it debuted back in September, spawning its own Tumblr blog with examples of errors. It also resulted in a plethora of articles explaining why the app wasn’t on par with other Map services, including a good one by VentureBeat editor-in-chief Matt Marshall. The bad press caused Apple CEO Tim Cook to issue a public apology about the Maps app’s poor quality and even remove any mention that it was the best, ever.

That said, a Google Maps native iOS app would be ideal. But for now, the addition of Street View should keep everyone happy.

Google just unveiled underwater “street views” of the world’s most popular undersea destinations: the Great Barrier Reef, Hawaii’s Hanauma Bay, and Apo Island in the Philippines. And the amazing views are available in glorious 1080P high-definition.

Here’s a quick peek:

To get the images, Google partnered with the Caitlin Seaview Survey, which used a specialized SVII camera to capture the images. Every three seconds while traveling at about 2.5 miles/hour, the camera captures a 360-degree panorama with geolocation information and a compass heading. Only two of the cameras are in existence worldwide.

Google recently added more building interior views and views of the Amazon. This latest release, coming on the heels of allegations that Apple’s mapping woes stem from a lack of data, is not likely to be well-received at One Infinite Loop. But let’s face facts: Google has been mapping the world for years.

This is not something Apple can catch up on overnight.

Image credit: Google

What happens when the illicitly obtained data you were supposed to have deleted is discovered on your severs two years later?

Well, if you’re Google, you start by apologizing.

The search giant landed in hot water two years ago when it was discovered that its Street View cars weren’t just taking pictures of roads and landmarks but were also snooping in on personal Wi-Fi networks, picking up personal data as they passed by.

Google was supposed to delete the information that December, but as it turns out, it didn’t get around to finishing the task, the Telegraph reports.

“Google has recently confirmed that it still has in its possession a small portion of payload data collected by our Street View vehicles in the UK. Google apologizes for this error,” Google’s privacy counsel Peter Fleischer wrote in a letter to the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

In the letter, Fleischer maintains that Google has never used the information for commercial purposes and that the company wants nothing more than to rid itself of the data.

But the ICO isn’t interested in moving quite so fast. “Our response, which has already been issued, makes clear that Google must supply the data to the ICO immediately, so that we can subject it to forensic analysis before deciding on the necessary course of action,” the office said in a statement.

Google sent out similar letters to representatives in other affected countries, including Ireland, France, Switzerland, Austria, and Australia.

The incident is the latest in a line of privacy run-ins that have made Google some high-profile enemies. Earlier this month, we reported that Google could get a $25,000 fine from the Federal Trade Commission for evading the privacy settings in Apple’s Safari browser.

While Google got off easy over its Street View data mining case with the FCC — it was only charged a $25,000 fine for obstructing the agency — the full report of the investigation, released today by Google, raises new questions.

The report (embedded below) is heavily redacted and blacks out individual names, according to the LA Times, who was able to get an early look at it. It blames one “rogue engineer” in particular for intentionally creating software for Street View cars that grabbed personal data, including e-mails, search histories, and passwords, from unprotected Wi-Fi networks.

Notably, Google has repeatedly said the data collection was “inadvertent.” But the FCC report offers up some evidence that makes us think Google had to be aware of it somehow. The unnamed engineer — who invoked his 5th Amendment right and didn’t speak with the FCC — told two other engineers (one a senior manager) that he was grabbing the data. The report also claims the engineer gave the Street View team a document in October 2006 that outlined what he was doing.

“While we disagree with some of the statements made in the document, we agree with the FCC’s conclusion that we did not break the law,” a Google spokesperson told VentureBeat over e-mail. “We hope that we can now put this matter behind us.”

Writes the LA Times Jessica Guynn:

Those working on Street View told the FCC they had no knowledge that the payload data was being collected. Managers of the Street View program said they did not read the October 2006 document. An different engineer remembered receiving the document but did not recall any reference to the collection of payload data. An engineer who worked closely with the engineer in question on the project in 2007, reviewing all of the codes line by line for bugs, says he did not notice that the software was designed to capture payload data. A senior manager said he preapproved the document before it was written.

While Google continues to maintain it never authorized sucking up personal data, it’s hard to believe the company was completely unaware of what was happening. It’s also hard to trust Google at this point, which first denied that it gathered any data, only to later admit that gobs of personal data was collected by its Street View cars.

Google still hasn’t divulged the identity of the engineer responsible for the data snooping software. According to the FCC report, he was a part-time engineer who was interested in collecting data from unprotected networks to potentially benefit Google’s other services.

Photo via Justin Taylor/Flickr

The 360-degree images of the parks, captured by the nimble Street View trike, represent roughly a year of cross-country tricycle voyages, Google product manager Ryan Falor said in a blog post announcing the update.

Featured parks include the world-famous High Line Park in New York City, Koganei Park in Tokyo and Kensington Gardens in London. In all, Google took pictures of parks in 22 different countries. These photos are just the latest addition to Google’s growing set of Street View special collections, which includes beaches, ski slopes, world landmarks and now business interiors.

Zooming out a bit, Google’s broader ambition appears to be reinforcing the notion that web users can explore the world — street or no street — via Google Maps, without ever having to leave their desk.

Street View on Google Maps has provided many hours of novel entertainment in looking up houses, friends’ houses, your elementary school, that park you fell asleep in that one time. But satisfying a small bit of voyeurism is not all Street View can accomplish. Now Google is using these images as a marketing tool for businesses that want to show off their interiors.

In order to have your businesses’ interior photographed, you must fill out an application with Google. If chosen, you will be contacted by Google’s photographers to set up a time for the shoot. Google owns all rights to the photos, including the right to keep one up, even if you object to it. In order to have an image removed, you must submit a request for it to be taken down. Google asks that you tell customers and those in the area you are holding the shoot on the day it happens. If people are in any of the shots, Google will blur their faces or simply not put the photo up.

According to a Google spokesperson, the company has already worked with thousands of businesses to shoot these 360 degree interior views. Photos will be available both on your Google business page as well as the Google Maps Street View.

Seemingly, this is not a “privacy” risk because you are consenting on behalf of the business to the photographs. However, as a commenter on Hacker News points out, there is potential for criminals to use the interior shots as a way to “case the place,” or find out information before robbing it.

“This one’s my business,” said Nathan Kurz, chief executive of Scream Sorbet, shown in the photo above, “They came to shoot the interior as a perk for participating in a “Google Offer”. I think this is how they are rolling it out, at least in the Bay Area. To me, the results came out fine, although I worry that it now makes ‘casing the joint’ a little easier.“

This could be a non-issue as anyone can walk into a store and look around, but having 360 degree shots on Google does make the information more readily available.

“It would only become a problem if all businesses had [interior photos] and then you could go down the block [on Google Maps] and see who doesn’t have an alarm,” Kurz said in an interview with VentureBeat.

This is a step forward for marketing purposes, but what if homes were next, would you let Google in?

Google has decided it will no longer launch “new imagery on Street View in Germany.” The decision suggests that the company will have to occasionally back down from its mission of digitizing the entire world’s information when it runs into privacy concerns.

The company told search blog Search Engine Land that its priorities have changed. A spokesperson said, “Our business priority is to use our Google cars to collect data such as street names and road signs to improve our basic maps for our users in a similar way that other mapping companies do.”

But the change may have more to do with objections raised by German officials and citizens. German officials objected as soon as Google said it would launch Street View in the country. Google agreed to let German residents opt out of having their buildings appear online. Some 250,000 Germans took advantage of that. That’s a lot of blurred buildings.

Google will still show existing Street View pictures for 20 German cities that are online now, but it won’t update those photos.

As he takes over from Eric Schmidt, Page has a lot of wind at his back. Google is one of the most impressive money-making machines in history with its strong search advertising business, which generated a lot of the company’s $8.44 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter. Google’s Android mobile operating system is going strong, and so is its YouTube property. But sharks have to keep swimming, and Silicon Valley companies have to keep moving, or they wind up being crushed, outwitted, or marginalized like Netscape, Silicon Graphics, or Sun Microsystems. Schmidt left some tough problems for Page to tackle. Here’s a rundown of what Page has to overcome to avoid Google becoming stale:

1) Deal with the growth of social networking giant Facebook. Google finally launched its +1 social affinity feature, but the time it took to make that happen was awfully long compared to the speed with which Facebook has been revising its platform. Facebook represents a threat to Google because the bigger the social network grows, the bigger Google’s blind spot gets (Google can’t search through the data on Facebook’s platform because it is walled off from the open internet.) That means Google’s search results won’t be the best at some point.

2) Circumvent the obstacles that China is throwing in its path. Google’s revenue has grown in China but not as fast as many Chinese businesses have grown. But Google claims the Chinese government is slowing down Gmail. Google is also trying to win the right to continue offering its Google Maps service in China without handing over its source code to the Chinese government. Rivals such as Baidu are racing ahead in the meantime.

3) Stay out of the cross hairs of antitrust regulators around the world. The European Commission and the Texas attorney general’s office are investigating Google’s market power. Members of Congress want public hearings on Google’s competitive practices. A federal judge recently rejected a legal settlement that would have allowed Google to proceed with its book scanning project. Google Books was reportedly Page’s pet project, and it’s not going so well. Google has $35 billion in cash. But as Microsoft learned, cash can disappear pretty quickly once government’s take their share in antitrust fines.

4) Catch up with Apple on mobile innovation. Google has spent a lot of time trying to outwit Microsoft. With its Android mobile operating system, it has taken on Apple. But even as Android gains market share on Apple’s iOS mobile operating system, Google frequently trails behind Apple in platform innovations. It has been far behind Apple in coming up with tablet software and ways for consumers to buy goods from within an app, which is the primary business model on the iPhone.

5) Make Google a good investment in the stock market. As long as Google is a one-trick pony focused on search/ads, investors won’t reward it with a rising stock price. And mediocre growth will make it harder to hang on to employees as well. If things continue this way, Google could wind up like Dell, Forbes said. Google’s market capitalization is $190.3 billion, while Apple’s is $317.4 billion.

6) Get people to trust it when it comes to privacy. Google has made a number of blunders when it comes to privacy, such as capturing Wi-Fi passwords with its Google Street View vans and paying an $8.5 million settlement over complaints about how its Buzz social networking tool exposed the names of people with whom Gmail users regularly communicated. Google has agreed to let the Federal Trade Commission review its privacy procedures every couple of years. And it seems it still hasn’t learned. Just last week, CNN wrote about how Google is exploring a service that allows people to identify faces in a photo. I noted how that was a perfect tool for stalkers. Google had once put such a project on hold for privacy concerns, but somehow this one’s been born again. It doesn’t inspire trust.

7) Hang on to its people in a talent war that is heating up. Rivals such as Facebook and other hot startups in Silicon Valley are hiring Google employees who want a chance at striking it rich. Google can’t reward its employees as richly as companies that are giving out potentially highly valued stock options. This relates to No. 5. But Google also has to start fun new businesses that make employees want to stay. At the moment, four of Facebook’s top executives once worked at Google.

8) Learn how to deal with the news media. Page is said to have a deep aversion to dealing with the news media. That can work against Google, as there are plenty of other CEOs who are better at that task and are often willing to dish mud in Google’s direction. Page is ranked No. 24 on Forbes’ list of billionaires. It’s pretty hard to have sympathy for such as person. But Page should try harder. He has leaned on Schmidt for too long in creating a public face for Google. That’s going to take some emotional intelligence, not just pure brain power.

9) Fix Google’s public image problems, because where there’s a perception problem, there’s also a reality problem. Google should come off as humble and realistic, not arrogant. Schmidt eventually learned how to speak properly in public without causing a furor on every occasion. When it comes to Google’s brand name, it has a lot going for it with search, YouTube and Android. But in too many other attempts, Google has failed to win over consumers. Google has to win trust and wow its fans over and over again.

10) Find a huge new business beyond search. YouTube, AdSense, Google Maps and other big diversifications are starting to generate good money for Google. But ad revenues from search still dominate the company’s bottom line. Maybe the company can build a better electric car than Tesla?

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

This morning, Google released version 6 of its desktop-based 3D mapping tool, Google Earth. The update adds integrated Street View, 3D trees, and an easier way to access historical imagery.

The features, while not likely to matter in the short term to Google’s ad-driven revenues, signal the Web search giant’s intent to stay on the cutting edge of mapping technology as it expands into the potentially lucrative market for local, geographically targeted search.

Most notably, Google’s Street View, which looks to digitize much of the world’s accessible areas through photos from its 360-degree camera-equipped van, has been fully integrated in the new version and allows users to zoom-in from outer space right to someone’s door step in one swish. The feature previously required users to click on Street View icons in available regions.

Additionally, for nature-lovers among us, Earth 6 boasts the introduction of 80 million 3D trees in Athens, Berlin, Chicago, New York City, San Francisco and Tokyo, which have been “digitally planted” using models of dozens of species of trees. The company also plans to work with environmental outreach programs such as Africa’s Green Belt Movement, Brazil’s Amazon Conservation Team, and Mexico’s Conabio to help model the planet’s threatened forests.

The ability to browse historical imagery on a location has also been made more easily accessible. Whenever there is a historical image of a location — allowing you to see how it looked back in time — a status bar will now be shown at the bottom.

The tool was previously updated back in June with version 5.2, adding an integrated Web browser and visualization of walking and biking tracks.

The search giant is facing lawsuits and investigations in several countries related to data collected for its Street View service. Street View lets users view panoramic street scenes on Google Maps. Google captures the data by sending cars equipped with 360-degree cameras through streets. But the company discovered that its cars were capturing personal data from wireless networks of people that the cars passed by on the streets.

From late 2009 until May, Google dispatched cars throughout South Korea to photograph neighborhoods.

“We will investigate Google Korea officials and scrutinize the data we confiscated today” to see if Google violated laws on communications and privacy, said the Cyber Terror Response Center of the Korean National Police Agency in a statement.

Google told the press, “We will cooperate with the investigation and answer any questions they have.”

Google faces similar probes in Germany.

Boring shopping Web sites attract interest — There are so many shopping search engines, we’ve given up trying to count. And yet investors remain interested. Santa Monica, Calif.’s ThisNext, a social shopping Web site, has raised a round of venture debt Western Technology. It lets people share and recommend products with friends. This comes after rumors that private equity firm Providence Equity Partners is buying 66 percent of Nextag, the Silicon Valley also-ran shopping search engine, for between $1 and $1.2 billion, which would be huge. GigaOm has the story, but classifies it as a rumor. We requested comment from Nextag chief executive Pernendu Ojha Wednesday afternoon, but no word yet. Nextag is reportedly doing $200 million in revenues, with a lucrative mortgage and other lead generation business going — it buys ads from Google to get business.

Forget instant messaging, get ready for instant thinking — Brown University researchers have developed a way to let a man play simple games by moving a cursor with only his brain, no hands. We’ve read about similar research before; it starting with monkeys. So here comes the future: All work, emails, spreadsheets, and Google searches, will one day be performed by mind control. No way around it. You won’t need that Google chip in the brain, because you’ll be able to control everything, not just Google search. And then there’s the next step — “network-enabled telepathy” — or instant thought transfer. Your thoughts will flow from your brain over the network right into someone else’s brain, according to a DARPA researcher.

EBay moves into radio auctions — EBay will begin allowing radio stations to auction advertising air time on its platform, in cooperation with Bid4Spots Inc. of Encino, Calif. More than 2,300 radio stations are expected to participate. However, we’re not certain why this will work, when its effort in TV didn’t seem to work.

Yahoo prices ads on value of traffic — Yahoo’s Panama charges advertisers more to place ads on sites likely to draw the most valuable traffic, based on the number of people who click on ads and their likelihood of carrying through with an order. See statement here.

Google purchase of PeakStream — See our story here.

The Amp’d whitewashing begins — Amp’d Mobile, the bankrupt mobile network that offers entertainment to youth, no longer has the ridiculously high number of board members cited earlier (20). Jon Auerbach of Highland Capital Partners and Allen Beasley of Redpoint Ventures have resigned, Dan Primack points out. Each has removed mention of the company from their online bios. Highland has gone so far as to remove Amp’d from its online list of portfolio companies. Too bad. We like style of venture firm Bessemer: The firm boldly lists its mistakes.

Microsoft’s search engine skunk works not as reported — Earlier, we cited a report by Techcrunch that Microsoft has launched a stealth search project here in Silicon Valley. However, search expert John Battelle has heard the report is not correct, and says stay tuned.

This Google Street View gets worse — We’ve ragged on the service’s privacy problems already. Now we find out that Google’s cameras took a shot of a guy peeing on the side of the road, and this is still in its maps. Harder to believe is that Google has left it up for a full day after it was discovered by bloggers. See details via Digg. We’ve requested comment from Google. [Update: Kate Hurowitz, of Google, responded: "...we respect the fact that people may not want imagery they feel is objectionable featured on the service. We provide easily accessible tools for flagging inappropriate or sensitive imagery for review and removal." We at VentureBeat didn't see those tools immediately, but we do notice the offending image has now been taken down.]

Michael Volpi has joined Joost – We reported this; it is now official.

Ready for your iPhone? — See the company’s latest ads.

LaLa Media pays for music, and gives it to you for free — Lala is one of the quirkier companies in Silicon Valley. A year ago, we were puzzled when the Palo Alto, Calif. start-up launched as a CD-swapping service. CDs in 2007? We were puzzled again when it pocketed $14.7 million from Bain Capital (a private equity firm with little experience with start-ups) and Ignition, another venture firm. And then we really scratched our head when it bought a radio station, WOXY. What next? Well, as widely reported yesterday, Lala has blitzed the world by offering to serve music for free, directly from its Web site, and it has the agreement from Warner Music Group to do that with Warner’s music assets. Lala and Warner believe this will stimulate sales. If you like the music you listen to, you can buy the album. True to the odd style of this company, chief executive Bill Nguyen has decided he won’t let you buy individual songs — and for no apparent reason. Also, Lala will change pricing, depending on the popularity of the album, what is in your music library already, and other factors — which could create confusion. Lala also said it is working to license music from the other three labels.

Crazier, Lala will pay about $140 million to the labels in order to do this streaming. But unlike other music-subscription services, which charge users a monthly fee, Lala gives you this all for free.

The radical nature it all, and Lala’s ability to hack Apple’s iPod platform, is masterful: Separately, Lala lets you pay to download songs to your iPod for $0.99 cents, and you can do so only with the iPod — no other device. Once you do this, you can’t move the music elsewhere. So it it is a digital rights management (DRM) equivalent. It’s a direct attack on Apple’s iTunes, and ignores other devices too. It counts on people discovering the service through its web site. What’s more, Lala is getting its investors to pay for it. It said it is raising some $40 million to pay for expected short-term losses (there’s so much capital floating around, Lala may actually find a VC to fund this).

Finally, its program will scan your desktop for digital tracks — everything from iTunes downloads, ripped CDs, etc — and then keeps it all for you in an account online so you can access it from anywhere. It then lets you download that to your iPod too. And you won’t be able to use iTunes again unless you reconfigure your iPod! To our knowledge, Apple hasn’t responded to this yet. This is such an endearingly outrageous move by Lala that that we find ourselves warming to this company. It’s a very long, desperate shot, but if it works, it could be big.

More details at Gizmodo and at Techdirt.

Ask.com’s new search – The second-tier search engine calls its new search “Ask3D,” but it’s a terrible name, because its not three dimensional. The 3D refers to three columns, a new way of organizing a search engine format. See below for an example of a search on Oakland. On the left is the search bar, and underneath are pointers to ways you can refine your search if you don’t find what you want — something that Google doesn’t have. In the middle column are the results. This is where the 3D search falls short. It is somewhat bewildering: An ad in the middle is barely demarcated (if you squint, you may be able to detect a ever so slight difference in shade). Finally, on the far right, Ask gives you different types of files related to your search: video, images, links to MP3 files, event listings and encyclopedia results from Wikipedia. Videos are provided by Blinkx, but not Google Video, another shortcoming. Finally, no ads on the right. More details here and here.

Google’s latest move on maps is impressive, and knocks out Microsoft’s latest effort to spruce up its maps with 3D imagery.

Separately, scared out of the shadows is a Waltham, Mass. start-up, Everyscape, which has a similar offering, but its twist is that it lets you cruise streets, landmarks and even enter buildings. It has a demo of Union Square, in San Francisco, and says a full lunch is planned for fall. It has a high gee-whiz factor, but takes some skill in directing yourself with navigational arrows — sort of learning how of to fly a magic carpet. More on Everyscape in a second, but first back to Google.

Google’s offering is called Street View. Go to Google Maps, select an address, and hit “street view,” and Google renders a 3D image of the street you’re on and surrounding view.

More impressive, it is interactive. Once you get the image (an example is below), you can drag it around, so that the image turns with you — a full 360 degrees. (Try it with the Golden Gate Bridge here). If you want a view of another place, you just take the little person-icon and drag them in the map to your desired location.

Microsoft, while doing something similar, is clunkier. The 360 degree swivel isn’t seamless. You can pick north, south, east and west, and have different screens for each. Still, Microsoft will no doubt scramble again to catch up.

More details on Google’s Street View from Greg Sadetsky: Cities covered so far are Denver, Las Vegas, Miami, New York and San Francisco. It is Flash, can be decompiled using Flare, and a server from Keyhole (a property recently integrated into Google earth) suggests Google Earth may be supported soon.

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EveryScape, meanwhile, lets you do even more. It lets you circulate in a neighborhood and enter stores and restaurants. It provides an on-screen window providing reviews of these locales, from Yelp and elsewhere. Turnhere, another start-up, offers videos of various places, but doesn’t offer the navigational kick provided by EveryScape.

EveryScape wants users submit photos of their favorite places, so that it can offer more than the nine cities where it is launching by the end of the year. It also wants to let visitors share their stories, opinions and reviews about their daily experiences at these places, against the visual backdrops. This is all dangerously close to the direction likely to be taken by Google’s Street View and Google Earth — though Google has yet to prove adept at encouraging user participation around its products.

On EveryScape, someone looking to rent his or her apartment can add a “For Rent” sign and an apartment tour. The beginnings of an ultimate virtual world?

No download is required. EveryScape is Flash-based. The company said the images it uses come from standard digital single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras, and are uploaded to EveryScape for processing. It says it wants to cover the entire world.

Update: More here from the Mercury News’ Elise Ackerman, about how the latest technologies are shaping up in the competition between Microsoft’s Virtual Earth and Google Earth.