Alphabet Inc.’s Google will give companies that advertise on its platforms more control over where their ads are placed, the company said in a blog post Tuesday. “Recently, we had a number of cases where brands’ ads appeared on content that was not aligned with their values. For this, we deeply apologize,” chief business officer Philipp Schindler said in the post. In recent days, large companies in the United Kingdom pulled ads from Alphabet’s YouTube after they were posted next to videos with homophobic and anti-Semitic content, Reuters reported....
Alphabet Inc. said Thursday it is expanding its cloud platform reach by launching its first Canadian data service in Montreal. The Cloud Platform “consists of a set of physical assets, such as computers and hard disk drives, and virtual resources, such as virtual machines (VMs), that are contained in Google’s data centers around the globe,” said a Google overview of the service. In a blog post Thursday, the company said the goal in opening a Montreal location is to “allow our Canadian customers to take advantage of the low latency and high...
The Supreme Court of Canada said Thursday it will hear a case centering on whether an Ontario court has jurisdiction over an Israel-based website that a Canadian is accusing of libel....
Taxing foreign digital services such as Facebook Inc., Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime service, Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube and Netflix Inc. could provide the federal...
Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly is meeting this week with digital platforms, telling a CBC morning radio show Friday that she was in the Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont., region Thursday meeting...
Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube will be launching a live and on-demand TV service that will enable subscribers to watch more than 40 traditional TV channels online without the need for a subscription from a telecom provider, it...
OTTAWA — When talking about CBC/Radio-Canada’s role in the media landscape, the public broadcaster is a “pygmy amongst giants,” and more focus should be aimed at large telecom companies, Dwayne Winseck argued Saturday during a debate about whether to “pull the plug” on the CBC. “Over the last three decades, the CBC has actually become a much dimmer star against a much bigger media universe,” Winseck, a Carleton University...
OTTAWA — Privacy experts raised the idea of a Canadian “right to be forgotten” in front of a House of Commons committee studying the Personal Information Protection and Electronic...
OTTAWA — Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google Canada told members of Parliament Tuesday they don’t see themselves as “arbiters of truth” in...
Almost 100 tech companies in the United States have filed a brief in a court case against U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order blocking entry of citizens from seven countries and all refugees into the United States....
A Federal Court judge on Monday ordered a foreign website to be taken down and some of the content it published removed from search engines internationally due to a violation of Canadian...
The Canada Media Fund (CMF) and Alphabet Inc.’s Google Canada will launch a YouTube channel for “iconic Canadian film and television content from years gone by” to celebrate the 150th anniversary of...
More than 1,700 people representing a variety of tech and telecom companies have signed on to an open letter opposing U.S. President Donald Trump’s weekend executive order blocking entry of...
Phasing out CBC/Radio-Canada’s sale of digital ads and tweaking tax laws to prevent companies from claiming exemptions for advertising on foreign digital platforms are among the...
Removing tax deductions for advertising on non-Canadian online media outlets could help the beleaguered local media and news sectors, while saving the government money, according to a new paper from...
There isn’t much disagreement between some of the country’s biggest media and telecom service providers over whether foreign entities, such as over-the-top providers like Netflix Inc., should be making a contribution to the country’s cultural sector. Submissions to Canadian Heritage’s broad cultural review from companies such as BCE Inc., Corus Entertainment Inc., and Shaw Communications Inc. generally dismissed the notion that Netflix...
OTTAWA — Canada’s highest court heard arguments Tuesday on whether a court in Canada can order a worldwide ban on websites appearing on Alphabet Inc.’s...
OTTAWA — Canada is involved in international discussions about how to address the issue of foreign digital vendors not being subject to domestic sales tax, a parliamentary committee...
CBC/Radio-Canada is asking the federal government for an increase in its funding so that it can eliminate advertising on its platforms. In a submission made as part of a government review of Canadian content in a digital...
OTTAWA — The Canadian government should review its mandate for CBC/Radio-Canada in light of the national broadcaster and foreign digital competitors taking away ad dollars...
OTTAWA — Creating the oft-asked-for level playing field by making foreign digital services subject to Canadian sales tax would hurt smaller companies trying to break into the country’s market, a House of Commons committee heard Tuesday from a representative of Alphabet Inc.’s Google Canada. The standing committee on Canadian heritage needs to consider the implications of changing the rules to support the request the committee heard repeatedly during its ongoing study of the media and local communities, said Jason Kee, Google Canada’s counsel for public...
Corus Entertainment Inc. has launched History Vault, a subscription over-the-top (OTT) service featuring programming from its History channel. The service, which costs $5.49 a month, “features hundreds of hours of...
Alphabet Inc. announced it will pause its fibre rollout to potential cities amid changes that have claimed its broadband division’s CEO. Craig Barratt, CEO of Google Access, announced on the company’s fibre...
Three Canadian media outlets will be able to display their pages faster on smartphones while using less data after adopting a new platform developed by Alphabet Inc.’s Google, according news articles by Corus...
The Competition Bureau announced Tuesday it is closing its investigation into Google Inc.’s advertising practices after finding evidence that it "used anti‑competitive clauses in certain types of contracts that...
International Data Corp. said Thursday that global shipments of wearable devices are expected to reach 110 million by the end of 2016, with a 38.2 per cent growth over the previous year, and...
The Supreme Court of Canada said Thursday it has granted Google Inc. leave to appeal a B.C. court decision that issued an injuction stopping Google from linking to a company in its search results....
Google Inc. is folding its music-streaming service Songza into a new ad-supported, free tier of Google Play Music. Wendy Manton, a Google spokeswoman, said in an email that this is happening everywhere Songza had been available,...
Leslie Church, head of communications and public affairs at Google Inc.’s Canadian division, is Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly’s new chief of staff. She said on Twitter Thursday that she was “very...
A majority of Canadians reported in a survey this year they are users of Google Inc.'s YouTube video-streaming service, with the likelihood increasing among those further up on the income and education ladders. Media Technology Monitor (MTM), a project of CBC/Radio Canada, said in a report released Tuesday that 69 per cent of Canadians surveyed this spring reported having used YouTube at least once in the past month. That was up from 64 per cent in a survey done a year earlier and 57 per cent in the fall of 2011. The rate of people using YouTube was 83 per cent among those in households...
Rhapsody International Inc.’s music subscription service, Napster, announced Monday that its subscription service is now available in Canada. It said in a press release that, for a limited...
BlackBerry Ltd. on Thursday confirmed that it will be releasing a smartphone that runs on Google Inc.'s Android system within the coming months. It said in a press release that the device will be called the Priv and feature a...
Rogers Communications Inc. said Friday that its radio division will team with Google Inc.'s YouTube for a weekly show that will look at the hottest trends in music, fashion, entertainment and gaming. Rogers said in a press...
Google Inc. said Monday that its Android Wear operating system for smartwatches can now work with Apple Inc.'s iPhones. Google said in a blog that LG Corp.'s Watch Urbane is the first device the iPhone-compliant version...
Worldwide smartphone sales in this year's second quarter grew at their slowest rate since 2013, largely as a result of the first year-to-year decline on record for sales of smartphones in China, Gartner Inc. said Thursday. The research company said in a press release there were 330 million sales of smartphones in the second quarter, up 13.5 per cent from a year earlier. In China, sales were down four per cent from the year before, Gartner said. "China is the biggest country for smartphone sales, representing 30 per cent of total sales of smartphones in the second quarter of...
Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Wednesday posted a video of himself on Twitter standing in front of a screen with a Netflix logo and criticizing calls for taxes on video-streaming services. In the video, Harper said he is a fan...
The British Columbia Court of Appeal this week upheld an injunction against a certain company turning up in Google searches because the company is alleged to be infringing on the rights of another...
BlackBerry Ltd. declined Friday to comment on a report that it was considering using Google Inc.'s Android software in an upcoming smartphone. Reuters reported Thursday that four sources with knowledge of the matter said...
Google Inc. will launch a new Android-based platform that will allow companies to build connected devices, it said in a blog post Thursday. Google said the platform, called Project Brillo, will include a communications protocol,...
Google Inc. said Friday that the testing of its self-driving cars will move from its own track to public roads in its home base of Mountain View, Calif. Google said in a blog post that cars on the public roads will not be able to...
DHX Media Ltd. said Thursday that revenue for its third quarter ended March 31 almost tripled from a year earlier to $85.6 million from $29 million, thanks to a major acquisition and gains in its distribution and production...
Google Inc. announced a new partnership with European news organizations on Tuesday called the Digital News Initiative. The search and advertising giant said it will work with newspapers including the Financial Times, the...
Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp. said Thursday it has launched mobile-payment capabilities for wireless customers who bank with Toronto Dominion Bank and have certain devices. SaskTel said the current service works...
Google Inc. on Wednesday announced it has launched a wireless service in the United States, partnering with T-Mobile U.S. Inc. and Sprint Corp. for coverage on their networks. A website for Google's new service, called Project Fi, showed it is available in most major markets across the U.S. Nick Fox, Google's vice-president of communications products, said in a blog post that text-and-talk service is available for $20 US a month, and data costs $10 US per GB. He said customers will get credit for unused data. The blog post said customers of the service can use their accounts in more...
The Competition Bureau is looking for experts in the fields of online search and advertising, and experts say it's likely related to its probe into Google Inc.'s advertising practices, the Financial Post reported....
Google Inc.'s Android division on Monday announced several upgrades to its smartwatch technology, including built-in WiFi, making apps visible even when devices are in energy-saving mode, and adding easier functionality for...
A case involving BCE Inc.’s mobile-TV service that’s currently winding its way through the Federal Court of Appeal is just one example of how the lines between telecommunications and...
Google Inc. said Tuesday it has appointed Ruth Porat, formerly chief financial officer at Morgan Stanley, as its new chief financial officer. Porat joined the bank in 1987, and led its investment in tech companies including...
The Competition Bureau on Wednesday disputed a report that a decision on an investigation it has been conducting into Google Inc.'s search and advertising businesses could be coming later that day. The Globe and Mail had reported that the investigative phase of this proceeding, which started in December 2013, is complete and a decision could be issued as soon as Wednesday. Competition Bureau spokesman Greg Scott said in an email to The Wire Report on Wednesday: "I’m not sure where they got their information, but I can confirm that the bureau has no plans to release any...
International Data Corp. has lowered its forecast for tablet and 2-in-1 hybrid shipments in 2015 following previous figures that showed the first ever year-on-year decline for this market in the fourth quarter of last year. IDC...
Patrick Pichette, the Canadian chief financial officer of Google Inc., said in a web post Tuesday he will retire in the coming months to spend more time travelling with his wife Tamar. Pichette, who is from Montreal, according to...
The chief executive of the Royal Bank of Canada says his company is on a “collision course” with technology giants such as Apple Inc. and Google Inc. as the act of making payments with...
Google Inc. will enter the U.S. wireless market, senior vice president of products Sundar Pichai said Monday at the WorldMobile Congress in Barcelona, Spain. He said the service would be small-scale and not meant...
Google Inc. said Wednesday it has a developed a program that will help utilize Android devices for business purposes in a way that ensures security for employers. A blog post from Google said the technology is called Android for...
Users of Apple Inc.'s iPhone 6 Plus are using twice as much data as those with the iPhone 6, according to a report from Citrix Systems Inc. The U.S. provider of workplace mobility technology said...
Twitter Inc. and Google Inc. have reached a deal that will make posts on Twitter’s social media accounts easier to find through the Google search engine, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. Quoting...
Google Inc. said in its fourth-quarter results that the average “cost-per-click” for ads on its sites and those of its network members decreased by three per cent over the fourth quarter of 2013. Cost-per-click for...
For the first time, Google Inc.’s YouTube streaming service is hosting a live Super Bowl halftime show of its own that will stream during the break of the NFL championship game on Feb. 1. Hosted by Harley Morenstein, Montreal-based creator of the Epic Meal Time web series, the halftime show will be live-streamed on the same Ad Blitz channel on which YouTube hosts its Super Bowl-related content, such as pregame and halftime advertisements from major brands as well as behind-the-scenes footage and other extra content. The company told Bloomberg News that the show will feature music, fake...
Google Inc.'s director of self-driving cars says such technology will be in operation in two to five years, but Canada will have to wait longer due to its climate, according to a report by the Financial Post. An article...
TiVo Inc. said Wednesday it is widening availability in the United States of a PVR for capturing over-the-air programing, a product it released on a limited basis in the fall. The TiVo Roamio OTA is meant for people who do not...
Global smartphone sales to end users were up 20.3 per cent worldwide in this year's third quarter compared to a year earlier, technology research company Gartner Inc. said Monday. The company said in a press release that...
International Data Corp. said Monday that growth in worldwide smartphone shipments is expected to drop from 26.3 per cent this year to 12.2 per cent next year, and even further in the years beyond that. IDC said in a press...
Google Inc. is launching a new approach to Internet advertising in the United States that uses a subscriber model to replace ads on certain websites. With Google Contributor, users can choose to pay a fee of $1, $2 or $3 US per month that will be distributed to participating websites as users visit. “Today’s Internet is mostly funded by advertising,” the company said on its website. “But what if there were a way to directly support the people who create the sites you visit each day?” Contributor users will see a thank-you message and a blank pixel pattern in...
Yahoo Inc. and Mozilla Corp. announced Wednesday they have reached an agreement that makes Yahoo the default browser on Mozilla's Firefox Internet browser in the United States for desktops and mobile devices. The agreement...
Canada’s largest media companies take it as a given that the current market for advertising on traditional broadcast media is weak, but experts say broadcasting is shifting to a new normal as online advertising becomes the...
Google Inc.'s wearable device, Glass, is seeing a decline in interest among the public and application developers, according to an article by Reuters. The article, published Friday, said nine out of 16 app makers it contacted...
Deepak Khandelwal will become new chief customer officer at Rogers Communications Inc., the company said in a press release Tuesday. Khandelwal is currently vice-president of global customer experience at Google Inc. and will...
A coalition of some of the biggest Internet companies in the United States criticized Canada in a report released Tuesday for being a laggard in the usage and development of Internet technology to grow the economy. The Internet...
The CRTC said Monday it will remove all evidence presented by Netflix Inc. and Google Inc., including oral and written presentations, from the Let’s Talk TV process, following the...
Google Inc. on Monday announced a new smartphone, known as Android One, it will make available first in India and other developing countries in the near future. Google said in a blog post that the new product represents the...
GATINEAU, Que. — A move by the CRTC to regulate over-the-top (OTT) video platforms could set a precedent for regulators in other countries, a Google Inc. lawyer told the commission on the first...
The dominant smartphone brands keep getting stronger as weaker brands, such as devices from BlackBerry Ltd., lose more ground, according to International Data Corp. The technology research company said in a press release Thursday that worldwide smartphone shipments totalled 301.3 million in this year's second quarter, up 25.3 per cent from the same time a year earlier. Devices powered by Google Inc.'s Android software represented 84.7 per cent of the overall market, with 255.3 million shipments, a gain of 33.3 per cent from last year, IDC said. Pricing was credited with much of that...
Google Inc., Facebook Inc. and Netflix Inc. must pay Canadian songwriters and publishers for music videos viewed on their services, the Copyright Board of Canada ruled on Friday. The board certified two tariffs from the Society...
Google Inc. has bought Songza Media Inc., the music-streaming service said on its website Tuesday. "Today, we’re thrilled to announce that we’re becoming part of Google," Songza said in the online notice,...
Google Inc. is extending its Android operating system to cars and television sets, the company said Wednesday during its Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco. Customers can use the Android Auto service to connect...
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and BCE Inc. on Wednesday said that CIBC's mobile payment app will be available in the coming weeks for certain mobile phones on the Bell network. In a joint...
Google Inc. said Tuesday it had reached a deal to buy satellite company Skybox Imaging Inc. and hopes it can help it improve Internet access in some areas. Google said in a press release it is buying Skybox for $500 million US in cash. "Skybox’s satellites will help keep Google Maps accurate with up-to-date imagery," Google said in the release. "Over time, we also hope that Skybox’s team and technology will be able to help improve Internet access and disaster relief — areas Google has long been interested in." The transaction is subject to regulatory...
MONTREAL —Videotron’s new iPad application, which allows users to access live TV, free and paid video-on-demand (VOD) content and programming stored on a personal video recorder (PVR), in...
Rogers Communications Inc. on Tuesday announced the launch of an online streaming service and mobile application for Sportsnet programing. The company said in a press release the service is called Sportsnet Now, and for the time...
A new report says smartphone sales will continue to grow in the coming years, though the opposite trend will be seen with BlackBerry Ltd.’s handsets. International Data Corp. said in a news...
Apple Inc. is planning on expanding into the Internet of Things and will announce a new connected-home platform next week, according to a report from the Financial Times. The paper reported that the platform will unify the...
Google Inc. said Tuesday any resident of the United States is invited to sign up for the opportunity to purchase its Glass technology, which is still in development. “We’re still in the Explorer Program while we...
Google Inc. has made a switch in the managing director’s position at its Canadian operations, the Financial Post reported Wednesday. An article on the Post’s website said Chris O’Neill was leaving the post after...
Google Inc. announced Monday that its online music streaming service, Google Play Music, is now available in Canada. Paul Joyce, product manager for Google Play Music, said in a Google Canada blog post that Canadians can try...
An antitrust class-action lawsuit in the U.S. has been filed against Google Inc., claiming the search engine illegally monopolized and stagnated the American market for Internet and mobile search....
BCE Inc.’s chief legal and regulatory officer told a Senate hearing on Wednesday night that his company’s targeted advertising program respects Canada’s current privacy laws. Mirko Bibic repeatedly compared his company to Facebook Inc. and Google Inc., which he said have access to richer and more personal data than Bell, and said his company needs the targeted advertising program to compete with those “global players.” “We are by no means the first to launch initiatives designed to deliver more relevant ads,” he said. “Formidable global...
Google Inc. on Wednesday finished a two-day developer conference about its plans for a smartphone with replaceable parts. An article published Tuesday on the PCWorld website said the phone, dubbed Project Ara, will have removable...
Google Inc. will make its Glass wearable device available to the general public in the United States in a one-day sale on Tuesday. The device will sell Tuesday for $1,500 US, the company said in a blog post last Thursday. Since...
There are a few hundred people in Toronto who are, in a manner of speaking, wearing their passion and belief in the potential of wearable technology on their sleeves. A group, comprised largely of people in related professional...
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) is calling on governments to do more to protect people from companies that offer so-called free online services. In a press release issued Wednesday, it said consumers have little...
Italian eyewear maker Luxottica Group S.p.A. said Tuesday that it has reached a deal with Google Inc. to collaborate on making its Google Glass wearable technology. The company said in a press release that its main brands, Ray-Ban and Oakley, would be included in the partnership, which would combine Luxottica's expertise in eyewear-making with Google’s technological know-how “to design, develop and distribute a new breed of eyewear for Glass.” “We believe that a strategic partnership with a leading player like Google is the ideal platform for developing a new way...
Google Inc.’s Chromecast device — which allows users to play video and audio files on their televisions while controlling the content and playing options through their mobile devices or...
Google Inc. said Wednesday it has reached a deal to sell Motorola Mobility LCC to Lenovo Group Ltd. for $2.91 billion US. Google CEO Larry Page said in a blog post Wednesday that the smartphone business is “super...
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada said Wednesday that Google Inc. breached Canadian privacy law by using individuals’ health information to provide them with targeted...
Google Inc. said Monday it has bought Nest Labs Inc. for $3.2 billion US. Nest makes products such as a thermostat that learns the schedules of homeowners and programs itself, the company’s website says. “Nest’s founders, Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers, have built a tremendous team...
Phones running on Google Inc.’s Android operating system made up 81 per cent of all smartphone shipments worldwide in the third quarter of 2013, up from 74.9 per cent at the same time a year...
Performing rights copyright collective SOCAN reached an agreement for its members to receive additional payments from the use of their music in YouTube videos, the collective said. SOCAN said in a release Wednesday the deal...
Google Inc.’s Android smartphone platform has led to “vast opportunities” for new smartphone vendors and “new competitive pressures at the top of the market,” research firm IDC said. In IDC’s...
Google Inc. subsidiary Motorola Mobility is opening an office in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont. Derek Phillips, engineering director for Motorola Canada, said in an emailed statement that “Motorola is hiring in Waterloo, and we...
Television providers have had a few years now to get used to online competition from over-the-top streaming services, though they should brace for more. As early as this year, they will be facing a new generation of online competition. Google Inc., Apple Inc., Sony Corp. and Intel Corp. are working on launching new over-the-top television services that may allow the viewer to flip through feeds from paid cable TV channels, including live programming. How long consumers have to wait for the tech giants to roll out their new TV products hangs on a multitude of factors—and their biggest...