Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have all signed on to the Global Initiative Network, pledging to protect the privacy of their users around the world, including – perhaps particularly – users in countries such as China, where demands that ISPs rat out their users are routinely made.

Google has just released Mail Goggles (do you have any idea how hard it is to not typo that as “Mail Googles”?), a new enhancement for Gmail designed to keep you from sending that 3 a.m. email while under the influence that you know you’ll regret in the morning, but send anyways. The Google Goggles work by requiring you to solve several math problems within sixty seconds before allowing you to effectively hit “send”.

Firefox and IE both have site blocking (or at least, site warning) built into their current iterations. Google also does site blocking now. All do site blocking based on some metric, known only to them, that tells them that a site is more likely than not to be a malicious site, such as a phishing site, or a site loaded with spyware. The problem with site blocking browsers and site blocking search engines such as Google is that sometimes they get it wrong.

An untold number of users attempted to log into their Gmail account recently only to be confronted with the chilling message, “We’re sorry, but your Gmail account is currently experiencing errors. You won’t be able to use your account while these errors last, but don’t worry, your account data and messages are safe. Our engineers are working to resolve this issue.

Did you know that if you lose some of your email from your mail client, and you pop your mail from Gmail, that you can actually re-download your email from Gmail again? Not only that, but with this trick you can redownload email from specific dates – meaning you can re-download from Gmail just the email received on the dates that you want!

If you retrieve your email via POP from Gmail, you may on occasion find that Gmail completely rejects your password. Now, having Gmail rejecting your POP password can be very disconcerting, not to mention frustrating! Your mail client keeps prompting you for your Gmail password, you keep entering the password that you know is the right password, and Gmail keeps rejecting it. It’s enough to drive you crazy.

The Internet is all abuzz today with a line from Google’s response in the invasion of privacy lawsuit filed against Google by Aaron Boring and Christine Boring of Pennsylvania. That line is “Complete privacy does not exist.” There’s only one problem – Google didn’t actually say it.

In a move that can only be described as, at best, disingenuous, Microsoft testified this week before the U.S. Congress that if Yahoo were allowed to partner with Google in a search advertising deal, it would, they implied, be an illegal monopoly. Oh, right, but if Microsoft buys Yahoo for the very same reason, that’s ok??

There has been a big stir created by the announcement that Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane has signed on with Google to create exclusive video cartoon content for their Adsense ad network. But we think that the big stir is no more than a tempest in a teapot.

Google had its Gmail tail handed to it on a platter when a German court held – not once, but twice (in preliminary and final orders) – that it could not use the name “Gmail” in Germany, as it infringed on a prior user of that name. As a result, Google is banned from using the Gmail name in Germany, and German Gmail users and others in Germany who wish to access the Google email service are banned from accessing the service via the Gmail name.

Pool crashing is the newest in thing with teenagers in Britain, and could well catch on quickly in other countries. The teens are using Google Earth to locate swimming pools in their area; then setting up the pool crash party by announcing it on Facebook.

At their I/O developer event held in San Francisco’s Moscone Center this month, Google unveiled two exciting enhancements to Google Earth. The first is a Google Earth plug-in enabling you to fly anywhere on Earth, viewing content in your browser. This mirrors the functionality that used to require downloading and installing a desktop application.

Google has a new favicon. It may seem like small news, but when you consider that it’s a complete rebranding, even if only in a microspace – it’s a space seen by millions of people a day – heck, millions of people an hour.

Google has responded to privacy concerns about people being recognized from Google StreetView map images, and begun deploying new face blurring technology to mask their identity. So those blurred faces you see aren’t an accident, or the result of the subjects having drunk too much the night before.

Google has released a Preview Version of Friends Connect, a new service that lets website owners easily add social networking features. For website owners the benefits of Google Friends Connect are clear; adding social networking features to an already popular site encourages visitors to stay longer, engaging with other users and with new and updated content, as well as providing content of their own in the form of comments, reviews and message board entries.