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The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection logs that enable analysts to track foreign targets, according to a top-secret document obtained by The Washington Post. The program, code-named PRISM, has not been made public until now. It may be the first of its kind. The NSA prides itself on stealing secrets and breaking...

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — Wrinkled and skinny at first, the translucent, jellyfish-shaped balloons that Google released this week from a frozen field in the heart of New Zealand's South Island hardened into shiny pumpkins as they rose into the blue winter skies above Lake Tekapo, passing the first big test of a lofty goal to get the entire planet online. It was the culmination of 18 months' work on what Google calls Project Loon, in recognition of how whacky the idea may sound.

In 1961, Phyllis Richman applied to graduate school at Harvard. She received a letter asking how she would balance a career in city planning with her "responsibilities" to her husband and possible future family. Fifty-two years later, she responds. June 9, 2013 Dear William A. Doebele Jr., I'm sorry it has taken me so long to respond to your letter from June 1961 . As you predicted, I have been very busy. Recently, as I was cleaning out boxes of mementos, I came across your letter and...

Google is experimenting with balloons that beam the Internet from the sky. WHAT? The helium-filled balloons are made from a thin polyethylene film and are 15 meters (49 feet) in diameter when fully inflated. WHERE? They float in the stratosphere about 20 kilometers (12 miles) above the Earth. HOW? The balloons would sail on the stratosphere's winds in a continuous circuit around the globe. The balloons come equipped with flight computers, and Google would control the balloons' altitude from the ground, keeping...

Believability has no place in " The Internship . " This is a movie in which two middle-aged men, both suddenly unemployed and, in one case, facing foreclosure, decide their wisest move is to apply for unpaid internships at Google even though they possess zero technical skills, barely know what Instagram is and often refer to the Internet as "the online. " Anything resembling post-economic-recession logic clearly got chucked out the window here, along with the acknowledgment that Bing and Yahoo exist.

When someone in the Washington area begins to type the president's last name into the search box of Google's home page, the top three terms it suggests as the most popular selections are Obama, Obamacare and . . . Obama phone. Obama phone? A hotline, maybe, to the Oval Office? Hardly. "Obama phone" is the widely used — and misleading — nickname of a 28-year-old federal program known as Lifeline . It provides discounts, averaging $9.25 a month, on phone service for...

Apple, Google and Facebook may be the headline names among companies involved in a U.S. government surveillance program , but one firm — PalTalk — stands out precisely because it's so obscure. Here's a quick look at what PalTalk is, and why it may have piqued the interest of the U.S. government. What is PalTalk? PalTalk is a voice, video and text chat service. Founded in 1998, PalTalk is actually older than Google or Facebook, and says it was the "first to combine voice and video into...

Google on Wednesday unveiled its "Project Glass," augmented reality glasses that will be able to display chats, maps and more. The Verge says that it seems like the glasses are "past the concept phase. " Speaking to [Nick] Bilton, someone who has used the glasses said, "They let technology get out of your way. If I want to take a picture I don't have to reach into my pocket and take out my phone; I just press a button at the top of the glasses and that's it. " In late February, Nick Bilton ...

June 6 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc. and the Grameen Foundation set out to improve awareness of sexually transmitted diseases and reduce risky behavior in rural Uganda through text messaging. Instead, the program spurred infidelity. Participants in the project texted questions on sexual health topics to a service set up by Google, Grameen and the local mobile-phone provider. Using its search technology, Google worked with Grameen to develop a way to pick up key words in the texts and reply with templated answers.

Google beats out rivals Apple and Facebook when it comes to the all-important game of reputation, continuing its place on top of a Washington Post-ABC News poll measuring how respondents feel about some of the country's top tech firms. The poll, released Wednesday, shows that 83 percent of American adults contacted on cellphones and land lines have a "favorable" view of the Mountain View, Calif., company, compared with 72 percent for Apple and 60 percent for Facebook. The overall results are similar to ...

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — Google is launching Internet-beaming antennas into the stratosphere aboard giant, jellyfish-shaped balloons with the lofty goal of getting the entire planet online. Eighteen months in the works, the top-secret project was announced Saturday in New Zealand, where up to 50 volunteer households are already beginning to receive the Internet briefly on their home computers via translucent helium balloons that sail by on the wind 12 miles above Earth. While...

At a party a few years ago, a young reporter bounded over to my cluster of social nodders and, with the breathlessness of a born tweeter, chirped: "What's the new hot thing?!" Without disturbing my mascara, I replied: "Anonymity. " She looked befuddled. I continued: "To be Googled and to have nothing turn up. That's hot. " Too late, alas, even then. In these post-Snowden days, the notion of anonymity is ludicrous. But so it has been for some time, though recent disclosures bring pause even to the habitually inured.

Google has a truly sky-high idea for connecting billions of people to the Internet — 12 miles in the air to be exact — through giant helium balloons circling the globe that are equipped to beam WiFi signals below. Google will announce Saturday it has 30 balloons floating over New Zealand to provide free Internet access to disaster-stricken, rural or poor areas. Eventually, as the balloons move across the stratosphere, consumers in participating countries along the 40th parallel...

GOING MOBILE: Google is becoming even more dominant in the rapidly growing mobile advertising market than it has been on personal computers. A forecast from eMarketer predicts Google will sell more mobile ads this year than its rivals combined. IN THE DUST: The report predicts Google's mobile ad revenue will total nearly $8.9 billion. Google's rivals will sell a combined $7 billion in mobile ads this year. APPING SUCCESS: Google's success in mobile advertising stems from its...

SAN FRANCISCO — Google will sell more mobile advertising than the rest of its rivals combined for the second straight year, according to a new forecast that highlights the expansion of the Internet search leader's moneymaking prowess from personal computers to smartphones and tablets. The report released Thursday by the research firm eMarketer projects Google Inc. will generate nearly $8.9 billion in mobile ad revenue throughout the world this year. The figure...

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Google said Wednesday that it has discovered and stopped a series of attempts to hack the accounts of tens of thousands of Iranian users in what the company believes is an attempt to influence the country's upcoming election. "For almost three weeks, we have detected and disrupted multiple email-based phishing campaigns," Eric Grosse, the vice president for security engineering, wrote in a post on the company's blog. The phishing...

Yesterday the  New York Times  revealed the existence of Google X — a playground for engineers working on the next generation of Google's wilder projects. However, the company is so secretive about the lab that very few employees are even aware of its existence, with one engineer likening the covert nature of the department to the CIA. Two teams split between the Mountain View campus and a top-secret location are reportedly toiling over "100...

Google's decision to let users use their Google+ accounts to log in to other Web sites has the potential to give the company's social network a major boost. Patrick Salyer, the chief executive officer of Gigya — a company that providers social log-in services to sites around the Web — said that Google's move could help boost its membership numbers and allow the company to leverage even more of its data. Salyer, whose said his company will implement Google's sign-in feature starting next...

GOOGLE ACCUSED: An influential committee of British lawmakers accused search giant Google of dodging its taxes. TAX AVOIDANCE: In a scathing report, the committee said the company took on highly contrived arrangements serving no purpose other than to avoid paying its fair share. ARGUMENTS REJECTED: The report came after testimony by Google Vice President Matt Brittin, who tried to persuade members of parliament's Public Accounts Committee that his company was transparent and fair.

EVER SINCE Edward Snowden leaked a couple of top-secret documents about government phone and Internet data-gathering, Google has pushed back. It is not a participant, willing or no, in a broad data dragnet, the company insisted. No one at the National Security Agency (NSA) has any kind of direct or open-ended access to its servers. It was " very surprised ," in fact, to learn that the NSA is apparently collecting the "metadata" of every phone call placed within, to or from the United States.