FTC Investigating Google; Tech Companies Hire High-Level Editors

Every week, Mountain View makes news with technology developments, discoveries and sometimes controversies.

Today, Mountain View Patch brings you a weekly “Bits and Bytes” column, where we’ll relay the past week’s news highlights from our backyard giants, start-ups and small businesses alike.

A technology start-up accelerator for minority-led businesses got off the ground in Mountain View this month. NewME aims to promote entrepreneurs through mentorship and access to Silicon Valley elites. Thirteen minority-led start-ups are participating in the first cycle, which will last nine weeks and conclude with pitches to investors.

LinkedIn has hired its first ever executive editor in a move to expand the company's news business. Daniel Roth has joined the LinkedIn team to oversee LinkedIn Today, a news product that launched in March, and find new ways to create content with LinkedIn's huge data sets. That could mean more analysis like this overview of networking savvy broken down by gender and industry.

Another big player in Mountain View has started to amp up its editorial team. Google has hired Richard Gingras, formerly the CEO of Salon Media Group, to lead Google's news products. Gingras' resignation from Salon is effective July 8.

Mountian View-based start-up Lytro is getting a lot of press for its light-field photography technology. The company has developed a camera that allows for both 3D images and the ability to focus an image after it has been taken. Lytro plans to release their product this year.

Google confirmed today that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is investigating their business. It is the latest in a string of antitrust investigations into the possible advantage that Google's search engine product could provide to their other products and services. Reports yesterday suggested that the FTC would issue subpoenas to Google within a matter of days.