The Center for Digital Democracy (CDD), US PIRG, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), discussed the proposed merger at a National Press Club meeting in Washington. They have filed a supplement to their original complaint about Google’s proposed $3.1 billion buy of ad network DoubleClick.

Verizon Wireless has sued to prevent the eventual winner of the 700MHz wireless spectrum from conforming with FCC requirements for open devices and applications.

The current Internet tax moratorium placed by Congress expires in November, leading Google to join a coalition of firms asking for that policy to become permanent.

The latest contribution to the Google Public Policy blog, on the topic of patent reform and Google’s stance, received a pointed rebuttal from a Brookings Institution guest scholar.

Phone and cable companies are losing the Net Neutrality debate, and losing it badly. And Google’s Washington Telecom and Media Counsel Richard Whitt doesn’t mind pointing that out.

An otherwise mild write-up of how Google sends checks to AdSense publishers for their earnings has a strange twist that hints at a relationship with Citibank that defies common banking practices.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt ascended to the Aspen Summit to discuss what freedom and openness means to his company and its customers.

Time zones aside, India achieved its independence exactly 60 years ago, and the country is now in the midst of numerous celebrations.  So is Google, for that matter; Orkut, YouTube, and various branches of the central company have all given their congratulations to India.

One week ago, six major corporations pulled their advertising from Facebook.  Then the British government followed suit.   Now the social networking site has introduced a solution that may bring them all back.

If Google wants to see the winner of the 700MHz spectrum adhere to its four proposed openness conditions, Google will have to push its money into the pot. That isn’t going to happen.

Not that there’s a potential conflict of interest or anything, but Cisco, or at least Mary Brown, Cisco’s Director of Technology and Spectrum Policy, sounds insulted by Google’s attempt to strong arm the FCC into imposing a certain set of rules on the upcoming spectrum auction.

Google’s still testing the waters of its cost-per-action ad model, which charges advertisers only when a sale is made or a lead form is filled out. But as one publisher notes, the AdSense team is inserting CPA ads onto his blog, whether he wants them there or not.

Do you want to know what Eric Schmidt did this summer? Public policy has been the name of the CEO’s game.

Google SketchUp enthusiasts, rejoice!  An official blog for SketchUp is now up and running, and if the posts on it are any indication, this will not be one of Google’s sites that sit stagnant for a month (or more) at a time.