Business & Tech Google Tells Workers It's Back-to-the-Office Time Starting April 4 There have been some false alarms and variant-related surprises in the past, but it could be that Spring 2022 will usher in a new late-pandemic phase of workers grudgingly returning to cubicles and conference rooms in SF and Silicon Valley.
Business & Tech Omicron Scare Likely to Push Back Bay Area Back-to-Office Timeline for Many Despite there being no immediate threat of an Omicron outbreak in the Bay Area and an overall lack of data on the new variant, the general uncertainty around it is very likely to cause big Bay Area tech companies and smaller offices alike to rethink their January return-to-the-office plans.
Business & Tech More Than 600 Google Employees Sign Manifesto Opposing Their Workplace Vaccine Mandate This is merely 600 workers out of 150,000, and you know they’re all just going to cave in eventually, but 600 Google employees won’t go down without a tantrum over the company’s vaccination mandate.
Business & Tech Facebook Is Pulling an Alphabet and Changing Its Name Next Week It's all about the metaverse! According to an internal source at Facebook, the company is preparing a big announcement next week to change its corporate identity and name, which of course has nothing to do with all the negative associations that "Facebook" now has.
Business & Tech Trump Pardons Anthony Levandowski, Convicted Thief of Autonomous Vehicle Trade Secrets Former Alphabet employee, Marin County resident and self-driving technology wunderkind Anthony Levandowski was one of 143 people to receive a last-minute pardon from Donald Trump on his way out of the White House.
Business & Tech Google Employees Have Formed a Union, But Only A Tiny Percentage Have Signed Up A smattering of Googlers, YouTubers and Waymo staff have formed the Alphabet Workers Union, in a move that could revolutionize the tech industry — or merely result in about 200 Google employees getting fired for vague “performance” reasons.
Business & Tech Justice Department Files Landmark Antitrust Suit Against Google; Google Calls Suit 'Deeply Flawed' An expected federal antitrust suit against Google dropped today which has many parallels with an antitrust case filed against Microsoft two decades ago, and while it may seem like part of a Republican vendetta against the tech industry, it has plenty of support from congressional Democrats.
Business & Tech While National Economy Tanked Last Quarter, Apple, Alphabet, and Facebook Made Bank Despite a historic economic downturn in which the American economy contracted more than it ever has in one quarter, four big tech companies — Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, and Facebook — saw huge profits and extremely healthy second quarters.
Business & Tech Google/Alphabet Joins Apple and Microsoft in the $1 Trillion Club Alphabet officially reached a valuation of $1 trillion on Thursday, becoming only the fourth American company — and the fourth tech company in history — to reach this once unthinkable milestone.
Business & Tech Almost Every State Except California Is Coming After Google In Antitrust Action A coalition of attorneys general from 50 U.S. states and territories formally announced an investigation into possible antitrust-violating practices by Google/Alphabet with regard to advertising. The only states not participating: California and Alabama.
SF News Google Slapped With Gender Bias Suit, Might Owe Money to 21,000 Female Employees Ex-Googlers can do more than just found a Bodega startup that the internet loves to hate. Some ex-Googlers might force the search giant to cough up back pay and a hefty slice of
SF News Supreme Court May Decide If 'Google' Is A Generic Term While our search engine and email overlords down in Mountain View surely love the fact that their brand name ‘Google’ has entered our everyday vernacular as a verb for “to conduct an online
SF News Google Employee Writes Internal Memo Railing Against Women, Diversity; Rage Ensues A memo from a senior software engineer that went "internally viral" at Google last week titled "Google's Ideological Echo Chamber" reportedly laid out a manifesto for why women are less well suited for
SF News Day Around The Bay: Google Buys 300 Homes For Employees A post shared by Poppa Bear (@snowboardvermont) on Jun 15, 2017 at 12:28pm PDT An antique truck that was carrying Oakland city officials in today's Warriors victory parade overheated and broke down.
SF News Waze Carpool App Expands To All Of California Today It's nice to occasionally see some developments in the obscenely well-funded rideshare industry that do not involve dude-bro executive malfeasance, regulatory shenanigans, or sexual harassment. So SFist is pleased to report that the
SF News Uber Fires Self-Driving Car Exec Anthony Levandowski Over Google Lawsuit Anthony Levandowski, a vice president of technology at Uber and reported close pal of CEO Travis Kalanick, has been terminated from the position he's held just over a year, originally heading up the
SF News Uber Changes Tune, Threatens To Fire Self-Driving Exec If He Doesn't Waive His Fifth Amendment Rights In a somewhat surprising turn of events this week, Uber's General Counsel Salle Yoo sent self-driving car division executive Anthony Levandowski a sternly worded letter, dated May 15, asking him to waive his
SF News Judge Refers Waymo V. Uber Case For Possible Criminal Investigation An initial decision has come down from a federal judge in the case brought by Google's self-driving car division Waymo against competitor Uber, and the judge has denied Uber's efforts to avoid having
SF News Self-Driving Car Guru Anthony Levandowski Steps Aside From Lead Role At Uber Embattled self-driving car division head Anthony Levandowski is stepping back from his role leading Uber's autonomous vehicle efforts pending the outcome of that court battle involving his former employer, Google/Alphabet, and some
SF News Department Of Labor Accuses Google Of Extreme Systemic Disparity In Pay Based On Gender In January, the US Department of Labor filed a lawsuit against Alphabet subsidiary Google to force the company to provide information on payments to employees in order to maintain the company's federal contracts.
SF News Genetic Testing Co. 23andMe Gets Long-Sought FDA Clearance To Assess Disease Risk In 2013, 23andMe founder Ann Wojcicki received a warning letter from the FDA asking her popular company to halt services that told customers they were at genetic risk of disease. "You are marketing
SF News Uber Exec Accused Of Stealing Google Self-Driving Car Secrets Pleads Fifth Over Criminal Charges Concerns Anthony Levandowski, an Uber executive whom CEO Travis Kalanick once called his "brother from another mother," is asserting his Fifth Amendment rights in a lawsuit filed by his former employer, Google. Levandowski's lawyers
Arts & Entertainment Google Unveils Its Latest Wearable: A 'Smart' Levi's Jean Jacket At South By Southwest in Austin this week, Google and Levi's unveiled a smart jacket that the two companies have collaborated on, which will be available to consumers this fall for a cool
SF News Google Asking Judge To Keep Uber's Autonomous Cars Off The Road The latest salvo in what could be a very long and drawn out battle between Alphabet-owned self-driving car startup Waymo and Uber comes in a court filing formally asking a federal judge to
SF News Google's New Circus Tent Campus Approved, Construction To Begin In April Google/Alphabet has been at work on a highly ambitious, enormous new addition to its Googleplex campus in Mountain View, this one dubbed Charleston East. We first heard about it two full years
