For all the good things that Google has brought into the world, everything from free and amazing emails to mapping the moon and Earth’s ocean floor to driver-less cars, the company has also become an undisputed master of obfuscation. Anytime …

With political ads in full swing during this election year, a debate is heating up in Washington over a proposal from the FCC that would impose regulation on TV stations. The Commission wants TV stations to put the “public inspection files,” which include the names, costs, and running dates of every political ad in recent years on a website that it would oversee.

Google’s biannual Transparency Report was updated yesterday and it has revealed some interesting information regarding requests to remove YouTube content as well as requests for user data from governmental agencies. During the period of January 2011 to July 2011, Google …

About 13 months ago, Google introduced its Transparency Report, which shows the number of government inquiries for info about users, and requests for Google to take down or censor content. It also includes interactive traffic graphs that show info about …

Google has updated its Transparency Report. This was launched last September, showing the number of government inquiries for information about users and requests for Google to take down or censor content, as well as interactive traffic graphs showing info about …

Google has an interesting post on its Public Policy blog, talking about how users can identify (or not identify) themselves, when using Google services. The company says it’s looking at ways to make such information more transparent.

According to Google there are three types of product use, and they each "have a home" at Google, but for different purposes:

Google has released what it is calling the Transparency Report, which shows the number of government inquiries for information about users and requests for Google to take down or censor content, as well as interactive traffic graphs that show information about traffic to Google around the world. 

YouTube has introduced the new US Government Portal today, though the channel says it’s been a member since 2007. The portal connects you to 25 federal agencies.

There’s a short but interesting blog post up on Google’s official Public Policy Blog, which states six principles the company holds with regards to competition and openness.

Since President Obama was sworn in and Whitehouse.gov has switched to a new interface, there has been an endless amount of chatter about the state of the White House’s technology. Some discuss the shortcomings, while others defend it as just fine.

Tradition and Transition

Before we get into this (and this is a guiltily delicious journey you may or may not decide to take), please consider what level of perfection you expect your Web icons—even the ones who refer to themselves as "spiritual leader"—to be on. While you’re doing that, pretend he’s not a Web icon, and decide what is forgivable in a regular (mortal) man.

Call it the latest in castoffs of a litigious society, or maybe a lesson in the new transparency the Internet allows. Simpler, if you want to keep a legal threat quiet, make sure your threat is a) valid and b) not made to a blogger with a history of telling everybody about legal threats.

Siva Vaidhyanathan sees reasons to worry about Google and its goal of organizing the world’s information.

Trust – reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence.

How confident are you that a particular Wikipedia page has reliable information? How sure are you in the ability of all the people who may have edited that page? Thanks to Luca de Alfaro and colleagues at the University of California, Santa Cruz you may soon be able to know which parts of a given Wikipedia page you can and can’t trust.

Business Edge has a great article on how company blogs–especially CEO blogs–can be used to communicate with stakeholders.

The article is packed with valuable insight and pretty much summarizes the benefits–and potential pitfalls–of a corporate blog.

I was supposed to be a guest speaker at a meeting on the East Coast last Friday. I was invited by PodCamp founder John Havens, who set up a BlogTalk Radio connection.

Transparency is a word that’s been kicked around a lot lately. But too much transparency is what got Edelman PR pro and blogebrity Steve Rubel kicked around this week, instead. An early Friday 13th comment about PC Magazine is fueling a potential boycott, as well as fulfilling what the PR world had feared about blogging.

When most companies decide to embrace social media, they usually use it as a vehicle to market new products and services, while at the same time seeking transparency. When Dell launched its IdeaStorm website, it departed from the normal “this is what we’re doing” message that most company blogs transmit.

Some believe that social media is one of the greatest viral marketing opportunities that has ever been presented. Others felt that it is a passing fad with no long-term future, and that businesses shouldn’t waste valuable time and manpower chasing the social media audience, to which they ascribe the perception of fickleness.

The relationship between a reporter and a company he (or she) is trying to write about is… well, complicated.

In some cases, it’s like two hostile nations trying to meet at Camp David, with each side compiling as much information — secret and otherwise — about their adversary, and each side trying to read between the lines to find out what the other party really meant. And sometimes those files get leaked, as they did in the case of Wired writer Fred Vogelstein.

The Long Tail: The Microsoft Memo: Some choose radical transparency, some have it thrust upon them Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief over at Wired, has a post out today that contains a massive email briefing by Microsoft’s PR firm Waggener Edstrom to a Microsoft executive about an interview with Wired Magazine.