Google: free the web

They once said they would do no evil. That fell off. Now, at least, they’re trying to compensate for their evil ways by doing good.

Google Ideas, the New York City-based “think/do tank” run by the Internet search giant, is launching several new technologies designed to highlight hacker attacks around the world and help people in repressive regimes access the Internet. The new products, which are being announced Monday at the Google Ideas Summit in New York City, represent the most substantial offerings delivered by the three-year-old Google policy unit and could be a major boon to activists and reformers in the world’s most closed and repressive societies.