Google, Apple and Microsoft are the world’s most valuable brands, according to a study by consultancy Brand Finance. “Apple has increased its value by 33%, making it more valuable than Microsoft for the first time,” says a company statement.

The data, released in early September, show what was the value of companies by the end of August. The ranking of most valuable brands is often disseminated throughout the month of January, but says the brand has launched an update in September 2011 due to economic conditions.

Google, which was the most valuable brand in January, following the first ranking position in September. Apple rose from 8th to 2nd place between January and September and took second on the Microsoft.

Among the ten most valuable brands are also IBM, Vodafone and AT & T.

They also showed growth between January and September marks Samsung and Intel, which rose by 24% and 23% in their values, respectively.

“Guardian” says Asian country has lower emissions than Google. 
Company launches report in reporting their sustainability initiatives.

Carbon emissions from Google, the company announced on Thursday (8), slightly exceed those of the Asian country Laos, according to a survey of the “Guardian”.

In an official website , Google said it generated a total of 1.46 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2010. “Without the efficiency measures we have implemented in our data centers, that would be higher,” the company said.

According to Google, its data centers use half the energy that the majority of the market.“Google uses very little energy around the world, about 0.01%,” says the site.

To compensate for their spending and borrowing, the company says it takes steps such as purchasing and generating renewable energy.

Google site that centralizes information about sustainable initiatives

The company also revealed how much it costs to maintain the services it provides to users. To provide products such as Gmail and Google Docs for a month to the user, Google’s servers use less energy than would be spent leaving a 60W bulb on for three hours.

According to Google, you can reduce your environmental impact by using some services of the company, like SketchUp, which can be used for planning and designing more sustainable buildings.

A failure in access to editing and storing documents in the cloud of Google, Google Docs , let Internet users have difficulty to open text files, spreadsheets and presentations for over an hour on the evening of Wednesday.

The service went off the air at about 18h (GMT) and was completely inaccessible for about half an hour. The site returned to the air, but with an error message. “We are aware of problems with Google Docs and are working to resolve them as quickly as possible,” the company said in a statement.

At 19.18, Google announced that service had been restored completely. “We apologize for the inconvenience,” said new message from Google.

Google Docs, which competes with packaged applications for offices such as Office, Microsoft, until recently only worked with an Internet connection. In late August, however, Google announced that it would create an application to allow Chrome users have access to the service without being connected to the network .

The failure also exposes one of the problems caused by so-called cloud computing, where information and programs are to be stored on servers on the Internet, rather than the user’s computer. A flaw in a service provider leaves thousands of users without access. But according to proponents of the model, such failures are unusual, especially when compared to problems with personal computers that can also harm the user access to a program or file.

Chairman of the company says there are obstacles for Google TV. 
Google says that more partners will enter the field alongside Sony and Logitech.

Google has a “firm commitment” to its television service and expects to announce several new partners to it soon, said Eric Schmidt, chairman of the company, on Saturday (27).

Google TV, which allows users to combine television and web content to televisions, has received some rave reviews and has been blocked by the big U.S. networks when it was published in the United States in October 2011.

Google TV

Schmidt told the Edinburgh TV Festival that obstacles to the product so far are in part due to a technical feature of televisions, consumers tend to replace only once every five years.

“We have a firm commitment to continue to improve Google TV,” he said, adding that new companies soon will join the current partners Sony and Logitech for the next version of the system. Logitech makes mice, speakers, webcams and keyboards for computers.

“I think the two will continue with us and many other partners that will arise. Expect an announcement soon,” he said.

Google has long harbors ambitions to expand its business in online advertising, which move U.S. $ 28 billion annually, the arena of television, which receives the lion’s share of advertising dollars in the world.

The company owns YouTube, the popular video site’s online world, but has not announced profits derived from this service since it bought in 2006.

Schmidt said in the lecture on Friday (26), which included the launch of Google TV in Europe for the start of next year.

On Saturday, he said Google had not yet settled their differences with the U.S. networks ABC, NBC and CBS, and hoped that the company did not find similar problems in the British launch of the service.

“We certainly talked to him about reverse its position, and hopefully something will not happen here,” he said, adding that Google was talking to British TV networks.

Like other sectors affected by the Internet, television in general Google suspicion, fearing that the company capture advertising revenue without adding to the heavy cost of programming.

Google argues that the Internet can expand the general advertising market by offering more targeted and effective ads, which encourage companies to invest more in advertising.

Google Related is an extension for Chrome and Explorer browsers. 
Content is opened in new tabs in the browser.

Google announced on Tuesday (14) the launch of an extension to the browsers Chrome and Internet Explorer that has a lower bar with related content to the site the user is accessing.Called Google Related, the bar can be installed for free.

When browsing news sites, Google has other Related links related to the theme, in a restaurant, for example, the service can show the map with the address and telephone number, to read a text about a given topic, the system can show a page with a contrary opinion.

The content appears in an area when the user moves the mouse over the bar, and clicking on the link, it opens in another tab, without the user having to leave the page.

Related Google provides suggestions based on page content when the user