• what Apparently, Google’s making another play at taking on Facebook’s market, this time by latching onto FarmVille maker Zynga to make Google Games.
• why Because people on Facebook play lots of FarmVille and Mafia Wars, and it could be a social networking in for Google, which had its Buzz flop recently. source

• Google isn’t to blame for the DMCA, one of the most spectacularly abused pieces of digital legislation  ever created. But it does seem to be getting more aggressive about DMCA enforcement.
• Robert X. Cringely • Regarding Google’s year of screw-ups, most publicly with Buzz and Nexus One (Lack of phone support for a mobile phone? LOL!), but specifically in this case with the closure of a number of popular music blogs on its Blogger site, which Cringely notes has been underreported by the media. Which is why we’re doing our part by reporting it here. Many of the sites got no notification before they were straight-up taken off the Internet. “If at this point you’re drawing the conclusion that neither the IFPI nor Google know exactly what they’re doing in these matters, you’re not alone,” says I Rock Cleveland founder Bill Lipold, whose site was taken down based on a handful of broken links. source

• Yeah, we get the point, guys. Geolocation is bad because it leaves your location open for people to take advantage of. But when Julius goes out tonight wearing a ski mask and preying on the poor residents of Dupont Circle who play FourSquare just a little too well, we’re going to want someone to hold the bag. We’re not going down for our crimes without taking someone else down with us! And, well, you’re it! source

• Google’s got a LOT of PR problems right now. Some of them are legitimate (see Google Buzz), others are simply a side effect of the company’s size. But the fact of the matter is, this hoax, plotted last week while we were complaining about the snow, is pretty dang funny. The car is fake. So is the rage. But the undercurrent is definitely real. source

• awful A blogger under the pseudonym Harriet Jacobs loudly complained in a post after the release of Google Buzz, due to the fact it allowed her abusive ex-husband to harass her.
• better After she wrote an epic blog post (now protected), Google dealt with her concerns (partially) and the media grabbed a hold of the story, too. She still plans to quit Gmail.

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• We’ve been playing with Google Buzz since last night, and we see a lot of potential here. It builds on some already solid foundations, and does things that prior players in this field – specifically FriendFeed – couldn’t do because of lack of scale. That said, we think Google has PR problems that Buzz largely amplifies. Here are our thoughts:

Google’s Good Buzz

• It has users! Google handled Buzz’s launch better. Wave introduced its platform without users, so while it was technically adept, it gave users no incentive to join. Buzz solves that problem by plugging into Gmail’s wide usership.
• It’s easy-to-use Another big problem with Wave is that while it was technically executed well, it was so complex to use that Gmail users couldn’t grasp it easily. Buzz’s interface is simple by design. There are options, but they’re fairly simple.
• It notifies! Perhaps the biggest mistake that Wave made was that it had no built-in notify feature via e-mail; it was designed to replace it, really. You had to check it to see if people were bugging you. Buzz is tied directly to e-mail.

Google’s Bad Buzz

• Do we need another? If Google had created Buzz three years ago, it would have seemed revolutionary. Now it just seems like Google’s trying to catch up. Facebook has this market cornered; why spend time focusing on this specific angle?
• It eats wave’s lunch Even with all the differences, most users will compare Buzz to Wave. Many people already see Wave as a failure because it never answered a simple question: Why? Buzz is closer to that answer, but the effect is that it neuters Wave.
• Can’t make up its mind The biggest problem Google faces is one due to its size. Google is so big that they try get involved in everything. Apple is successful right now because their decisions are deliberate. Google’s aren’t, and they seem indecisive. source