For those of you who have been following the 700mhz spectrum auction, you know that if the C block doesn’t meet the $4.6 billion reserve price, then it will not remain open and a new auction will begin. Luckily, the bidding has gone extremely well and it’s up to about $4.3 billion right now. The next round just started and will be done in 45 minutes…

The minimum bid for the next round is $4.86 billion, so as long as someone bids for it, it will be forced to have open access. That’s a big win for everyone. Here’s to hoping that Google or someone else makes the bid to get the C block. That has the potential to really open up the mobile industry and there is a lot of room for innovation in that space. Perhaps the Google/Apple relationship will finally bear fruit. Open iPhone + Open Google Network could be amazing.

UPDATE: In round 14, there were no new bids for the C block and the minimum bid has dropped to $4.79 billion for round 15. Also, the grand total for the 700mhz spectrum auction is over $10 billion now.

For those of you who don’t know, Google has been buying lots and lots of what’s known as “dark fiber”. Essentially, this is unused fiber optic network that major network infrastructure companies built, but can’t make use of so they sell it off. Now, it’s been speculated all over the place about what Google would need a dark fiber network for. Now, ZDnet is writing that Google is buying a large block of IPv6 addresses. (more…)

It seems like every time that a product or service hits it big - like the iPod, MySpace, or Craig’s List, hundreds of other companies or individuals try to copy the idea. Most of the time copycat products never do as well as the original did. Yet, even when the copycat product improves on the idea, it still doesn’t seem to catch on in the same way that the original did.

How does this happen? Well the reasons for copycatting are obvious enough. If something is successful, then people want in on the money and the success. Then, the obvious thing that people do is take the original product and make it better and cheaper. Conventional wisdom says that this should work. However, it doesn’t work and a whole generation or two of so-called “iPod killers” has proved this. You can’t just slap on new features and unseat the iPod or MySpace or Craig’s List. It just won’t work! (more…)

We all hate Google Local don’t we? Well, fear not my readers. Google Maps is back! WoooHOOOOO!!!!! It’s very exciting isnt’ it? Yep. I’m excited. For those of you who wrote in to google about bringing Google Maps back, WAY TO GO!!!!

Official Google Blog

According to Reuters, Google is raising $2.1 billion in a new stock offering by offering to sell 5.3 million shares of what was not so long ago the hottest stock out there. Now, as soon as I found out about this, the first thing I thought was, how in the hell is Google going to spend another $2 billion? Rob Hof over at Business Week thinks that maybe it could be to buy Facebook, which supposedly turned down $750 million and is seeking $2 billion. Now, the numbers do match up as far as Google having $2 billion and Facebook wanting $2 billion, but what would the real motive be?

(more…)

While Dick Cheney might have won the super duper oops award for accidentally shooting a fellow hunter a month ago, Google strikes back this month with its own blunder. According to the official Google blog they deleted their own blog by accident. Now, I don’t understand how this happens, but then again I’ve only been writing The Mole for the last few weeks. Perhaps it’s not the Google bloggers’ fault. I think it’s probably something as simple as the ghost inside the machine that is the Googleplex decided to play an early April Fool’s day joke. It’s three days early, but who cares? This is easily funnier than 75% of most April Fool’s day jokes. Way to go Google Ghost in the Machine(beta)!

TechCrunch got ahold a bunch of screenshots of Google’s upcoming calendar application. It looks like it’s still not ready for the masses, but it’s always good to see Google continuing to develop cool new products.

The Mole’s Take

A calendar is something that everybody can use and so it’s obvious that Google needs to create such a calendar. However, It’s something that Goggle needs to be very careful about introducing. Unless it’s as incredible as GMail was when it was first introduced, it will flop. Unfortounately right now Google can’t afford to just introduce any old software. We all expect it to be on par with Google Search, GMail, etc… I think a calendar could be a great addition to GMail, but I just hope they take the time to make it something better than “just another calendar”.

read more | digg story