Duck Duck Go takes its anti-Google privacy policy message to San Francisco

Update, 1/20/11, 10:40 a.m.: Added encryption detail from Google.

On the heels of our coverage of Valley Forge search engine company Duck Duck Go’s new marketing strategy that plays off of Google’s targeted advertising technology and its inherent tracking capacity, founder Gabriel Weinberg has taken the message straight to San Francisco.

This week, the company unveiled a billboard promoting its DontTrack.Us campaign along the Bay Bridge, reminding drivers and passengers that Google’s use of advertising targeting technologies allegedly puts users at risk for identity tracking, third-party profile building and search history leaks.

But Google responded promptly this morning to an e-mail for comment.

“It’s unfortunate that DuckDuckGo is preying on people’s fears and offering incomplete information in order to garner attention,” wrote Google’s Christine Chen, Senior Manager of Global Communications and Public Affairs.

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Comcast Roundup: Calls critics of NBC deal ‘self serving,’ @ComcastCares leaves and More

Every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup. Get an e-mail subscription for our Comcast news updates.

DEFINITE READS

• LA Times reports that Comcast told the FCC that critics of its deal of NBC are ‘self-serving.’
• The New York Post reports that in a court filing Comcast calls itself the fourth largest media company in terms of advertising and affiliate revenue if the NBC deal would go through.
• Variety reports on the filing saying that Comcast portrays its acquisition of NBC as an opportunity to stimulate, not stifle, competition.

Below, the man behind @ComcastCares is leaving, Google bumps its lobbying budget to fight on net neutrality and more.

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Philly Is “Gigabit City” (with or without Google)

Last week, Google thanked the 1,100 applicants who entered its Google Fiber for Communities contest, an initiative to test high-speed, next generation broadband — known as ‘gigabit’ fiber — that is up to 100 times faster than current average household Internet connections. As we’ve written in this column before, Google plans to wire between 50,000 and a half-million households with gigabit, an experiment which could have broad implications for technological innovation and national broadband policy.

The thank-you was but a tease for Philly’s technology community, which, as part of the City’s application to the Google Fiber for Communities contest, created “Gigabit City,” a repository where folks brainstorm specific projects that may be possible with gigabit technology. Like everyone else, they’ll have to wait until Google announces the winners in the fall, but City of Philadelphia Chief Technology Officer Allan Frank isn’t sitting around. He’s turned the city’s application into an opportunity to engage Philadelphia around next-generation broadband policy.

In the process, he’s been able to push the city’s telecommunication heavies  — Comcast and Verizon — to consider Philadelphia’s future.

Read the full story over at Philly Mag’s Philly post.

Google releases fiber website, no winners yet

Google has yet to announce the winner of its Google Fiber contest, but the search giant is showing signs of life.

The company has launched a new website to thank cities that applied to be a part of the company’s Google Fiber experiment which would deliver Internet speeds up to 100 times faster than most consumer Internet plans.

The site highlights some of the over-the-top methods (such as Topeka renaming itself “Google”) utilized by 1,100 cities all over the country that hoped to increase the chances of receiving Google’s experimental gigabit internet infrastructure.

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Comcast: Launching social networking site Turnerfish, a call to drop Hulu and More

DEFINITE READS

• Businessweek reports that in the coming weeks Comcast will unveil a beta version of a social networking service focused on allowing users to share their TV and Internet video watching. The service is currently called ‘Turnerfish.’
• Politico reports that 78 former government officials, including former congressmen, staffers and others, have been registered as Comcast lobbyists in the final quarter of 2009 and first quarter of 2010, in a blitz to push forward its move to purchase a majority stake in NBC Universal. H/T Philly Tech News

Below, we bet you can guess what three governors are leaning on approval of the Comcast-NBC deal, another round of Google-Comcast rivalry brewing and more.

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Google Fiber chased by 1,100 municipalities, Gigabit Philly site to relaunch

This map displays where the responses were concentrated. Each small dot represents a government response, and each large dot represents locations where more than 1,000 residents submitted a nomination. Google plans to share a complete list of government responses soon. Image courtesy of Google

Updated 4/3/10 @ 8:59 p.m.: Planned, possible locations in Philadelphia

The application deadline for Google’s ultra-high speed broadband fiber experiment closed a week ago, but Philadelphia’s horse isn’t done riding yet.

Some 1,100 municipalities and thousands of individuals applied, according to the Washington Post, including a collaboration between Philadelphia city officials and community leaders, dubbed Gigabit Philly. Google says it will announce its “target community or communities” by the end of the year, so the Philadelphia group boosting the city’s application is still cheerleading.

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Links: What stories do we share online, SAP CEO not asked back and More

DEFINITE READS

• Cyberjournalist reports that University of Pennsylvania researchers found readers are more likely to share three types of stories online.
• PEHub is looking for votes on where it should host its next meetup, and Philadelphia is a choice. Vote here.

Below, zombies and geeks, SAP CEO leaves in a tornado of speculation and more.

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Comcast Roundup: NBC hearings begin today, a Google balance and More

Every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup. Get an e-mail subscription for our Comcast news updates.

DEFINITE READS

• USA Today reports that Hulu executives are likely eager to start experimenting with paid version of the popular video streaming site but must wait for the finalized result of Comcast’s deal with NBC, which owns nearly a third of the site.
• The Washington Post reports that today the congressional hearings on the Comcast-NBC deal have begun.
• paidContent reports on Democratic staff memos that discuss, ahead of today’s congressional hearings on the matter, the impact the merger has to “fundamentally shape the way Web video evolves.”

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Friday Tech Links: Mount Airy teen hacker in WSJ, Digital Philadelphia summit video and More

Ari Weinstein, 15, in the computer lab of Germantown Friends School, where he just finished 9th grade. Yukari Kane/The Wall Street Journal

In which we link out to the tech news from Philly and elsewhere (when it matters) that slips through the cracks and make it way fun. See others here.

Ari Weinstein is the youngest Mount Airy-based hacker we’ve featured on Technically Philly in our long and illustrious history.

Weinstein, 15, is apparently “getting job offers from Israel and all over the place,”�and will follow in my footsteps and appear on Fox 29 Monday morning (See clip here), after his place in a Wall�Street Journal cover story that ran this week, as reported dutifully by our boy Joe DiStefano.

Weinstein is a contributor to iJailBreak.com, a blog devoted to help users install unapproved software onto Apple’ iPhone and iPod touch products.

Dude is keeping it straight tech raw in northwest Philly, even while he’s in summer camp on the Left Coast. Dude’s father Ken is a developing playing a large role in something of a retail resurgence in Mount Airy, DiStefano reports, including his ownership of the Trolley Car Diner.

H/T Joey D

After the jump, more Ben Franklin Technology Partners dispute, a Digital Philadelphia op-ed and six other tech stories you should read, including our best read article of the week.

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SEPTA opens Google Transit data to third-party developers

SEPTA passengers and city programmers alike have reason to celebrate.

The region’s transportation organization announced today that it has integrated its trip planning services with Google Transit and that it will give third-party developers access to location and scheduling data, as reported earlier.

The first phase of SEPTA’s Google Transit offering provides route planning automated by Google for its Regional Rail, Market Frankford El, trolley routes and Norristown high-speed services. Users can enter a start point and a destination and are quickly returned directions that utilize Philadelphia’s public transportation system.

“Google Transit will help us introduce SEPTA and the convenience of using public transit when visiting our destinations in the city and the region,” SEPTA General Manager Joe Casey told members of the press on the Mezzanine level of SEPTA headquarters on East Market Street earlier today.

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