Google

Google an advertising company? I'm shocked! Shocked! </notShocked>

Back in 2010 Chrome had a 22% of the browser share -- just percentage points behind Internet Explorer. Firefox was the king of the hill in those days with a 43.5% share.

That was then, this is now. Chrome passed IE and Firefox long ago. Chrome has a 48.9 percentage point lead over Firefox, and it continues to grow. Now Google is about to roll-out the algorithm Brotli. What is interesting is Google's approach on Brotli. The article states, "Google made the code open-souce, meaning it can be used by any competing browser. Mozilla, for example, says it will use the code in Firefox."

When you see how far mobile technology has come in the last dozen years, can virtual reality be the next big trend? Generally speaking Google generally has a good nose for these type of futures:

(via Forbes) Why Is Google Increasing Its Focus on Virtual Reality? / http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2016/01/14/why-is-google-increasing-its-focus-on-virtual-reality/#2715e4857a0bc61cb0f30b94

Allegations come over house data was collected from Chromebooks: (via eSchoolNews) Digital rights group alleges Google invades student privacy: http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/12/17/digital-rights-group-alleges-google-invades-student-privacy/?ps=plebrenz@e1b.org-0013000000j0yq2-0033000000qi4iG

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) accused Google of collecting and storing data from children using its products at school. Google denies the claim -- data usage was to improve Google products and services, "...that the practice was not in line with its commitment to the Student Privacy Pledge, which prohibits it from misusing children's data."

Read more: (via BBC) Google denies claims it broke child-data promises / http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34994207