Google removed its news aggregation service from Spain a few days ago, but the Spanish Newspaper Publishers’ Association (AEDE) is already asking the government to bring it back.

AEDE claims the removal of Google News will be bad business for the publishing industry overall and will have more of a negative effect on smaller internet-based publications.

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In a near-perfect example of how there is always more than one way to look at things, Edward Snowden has very different views on Amazon than Amazon users do. On Friday, Snowden appeared -- as ever -- via video link at the surveillance symposium at the Cato Institute. He condemned Amazon's lack of encryption of customers' searches, referring to the practice as "morally irresponsible".

But Snowden's condemnation of Amazon comes at the same time as a study by Bizrate Insights which finds that more than 45 percent of online shoppers trust the site with their payment and personal information. So why the disparity?

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Whenever I set up a new router, I always change the DNS settings to point to Google Public DNS. Why? I find the search-giant's solution to resolve addresses faster than my ISP. Heck, when I am connecting to someone else's network, I enable Google DNS in my device settings too.

According to Google its DNS solution handles a mind-boggling 400 billion responses per day. Today, the search giant announces that a recent collaboration with Akamai will improve the speed of accessing location-based Akamai hosted content.

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Google has unveiled Google 5.0 for iOS, a new release of its search tool for iPhone and iPad.

Version 5, which incorporates functionality from Google Now, has been rebuilt from the ground up to add a number of new features, plus show off a new look and feel that’s been designed around the new iPhone 6 product family.

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In the grand scheme of things, we aren't far removed from a time when most people thought the Earth was flat. Yes, we went from thinking a boat could sail off of the edge of the world, to landing a spacecraft on a comet -- crazy, right?

When Google Earth was first released, it was a mind-boggling program. It allowed users to easily navigate a virtual Earth; a high-tech globe, if you will. While people take it for granted, the search-giant's offering remains wonderful. Unfortunately for developers, Google is killing the Earth API.

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YouTube is a great source of entertainment, but don't you wish that sometimes people would just cut to the chase? There are plenty of videos of epic length, often comprising a massive build up to a short punchline. Why not cut the crap and get to the point?

One way to do this when re-sharing YouTube videos is to convert the interesting portion into an animated GIF, saving viewers time and bandwidth. YouTube itself is getting in on the web's rekindled interest in animated GIFs. A new beta program has been opened up that lets YouTube users transform lengthy videos into snapper clips of up to six seconds in length.

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Google wants to get all of the platforms updated to Material Design -- the new design language first previewed at Google I/O this year.

Android Wear has been waiting for the Lollipop update for quite some time, after Nexus, Google Play Edition and some OEM (original equipment manufacturers) gained early updates to the new OS update.

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Google Cardboard, when compared to big virtual reality names like the Oculus Rift and Sony’s Project Morpheus, might seem like a bad joke. The tech giant, however, is prepared to show the world it’s serious about its cardboard-based headset.

The company has launched a new web page for the low-cost VR, one which collects the best apps for download as well as showcases new SDKs for Android and Unity devs to play around with.

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People that know me, know that I am socially awkward. I am useless at a party, and overall, face-to-face human interaction just escapes me. Suffice to say, computers give me an outlet -- I am rather suave on IRC, you see. As a result, I don't have many friends, but regarding the ones I do have, I refuse to give them my Wi-Fi password. These aren't new friends either; I have known some more than 20 years. Quite frankly, I share the password with the family members in my home under protest.

While not everyone is as odd as me, I know I am not alone. Surely there are other nerds that view friends and family with access to the network as weak-links in the security chain. In other words, I don't want some malware-infested machine touching my precious home network. Apparently, Google knows of my woes, as today, the search-giant announces guest mode for Chromecast.

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The gradual but relentless move to the cloud is about more than just making it easier to access files from multiple devices. For many people, particularly business and enterprise users, sharing and collaboration is more important. Today Google has made two small but important updates to Drive and Docs that makes file sharing easier than ever.

Now when you start to type the name of someone you would like to share a file with, you will see their profile picture alongside their name. This mimics the way things work in Gmail, and helps you to check you are selecting the right people.

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Stories about companies going to all manner of lengths to minimize or completely avoid tax payments are nothing new. Google is no stranger to this, and following new legislation in Spain, the company is shutting down the Spanish version of Google News. This is a bid to avoid paying what has been dubbed the "Google Tax".

The Spanish government is about to bring in legislation that would require Google News to make payments to publishers whose content it uses. The news service will close on 16 December, but the consequences go beyond Spanish web users missing out on Google News.

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Google Play is home to apps for every occasion, books to suit every mood, and movies and music for everyone. Today Google announces that Android Wear users can also download a makeover for their wrist wear from the digital store. Watch faces can now be downloaded from Google Play direct to your chosen wearable.

From the serious to the silly, the cheap-and-cheerful to the utterly stylish, you can transform the look of your smartwatch with just a few clicks. And now that the Watch Face API is available to developers, you can expect to see more and more faces popping up over the coming weeks and months.

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Several internet giants and media publishers, (Google, Microsoft and Le Figaro newspaper included), are threatening legal actions against the developers of software that blocks ads from reaching consumers.

This is, obviously, a problem for websites that rely on advertising as the web becomes more and more popular.

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Even though we are in a golden age of television, with shows like Breaking Bad, Walking Dead and Game of Thrones, more and more people are turning to YouTube for their video watching. It is hard to blame them, as the online videos are usually concise, entertaining and more importantly, the stars are oftentimes more accessible. In other words, while getting a tweet from a Hollywood celebrity like Jim Carrey is rare, getting one from iJustine or Chris Pirillo is not so far-fetched. Not everyone gets tweets from Jay Z like I do.

Today, YouTube is sharing its "YouTubeRewind 2014" -- a mashup video that celebrates the best of 2014 (seen above). In addition, the search giant is listing the overall top videos, plus filtered categories for music and advertisements. Did your favorite videos make the cut?

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What's your gender? For some people it's a simple question -- nothing more than checking one of two boxes. But it can get more complicated than simply indicating that you're male or female. Many people feel that gender is not important and would prefer to keep this information to themselves. This is now a wish that Google respects on Google+.

In fact Google is going far beyond this. Starting today Google+ includes support for an infinite number of gender identifies. So whether you would rather not disclose where you fit onto the gender spectrum, or want to proclaim it outside of the confines of the usual binary options, now you can.

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