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California Regulators Are Fining Uber, Lyft, And SideCar

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/california-cpuc-uber-lyft-sidecar-2012-11

The California Public Utilities Commission has cited and fined Uber, Lyft, and SideCar, three San Francisco-based startups offering on-demand transportation through mobile apps, TechCrunch reports.

Lyft and SideCar, which let any car owner sign up as drivers to offer rides, received fines of $20,000, the companies told TechCrunch. Uber, which contracts with professional limo drivers, maintains that it’s not subject to regulation by the PUC, which already regulates its drivers.

The commission is classifying the companies as “charter-party carriers.”

The companies argue that such rules don’t apply to them, because they’re offering an Internet-based service to connect riders and drivers.

The city of San Francisco has generally proven friendlier to its local startups. It’s formed a “collaborative consumption” task force to come up with a framework for handling ride-sharing services and other new businesses like Airbnb which run up against older regulations.

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Check Stock Prices

When you need to check the status of your stocks, search Google for the shortened stock name. For example, to find Facebook’s current price, search “FB.” If you’re not sure of the stock’s name, you can also use “[name of company] stock.”

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When you type in any health condition (like asthma, psoriasis, etc) into Google, you get a quick synopsis of the condition from the U.S. National Library of Medicine. If you don’t know the condition, you can also type in symptoms. For instance, “abdominal pain on right side” pulls up a list of possible conditions, including appendicitis, ectopic pregnancy, and kidney stones.

Find Information on Medications

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Hunt Down Information on Local Restaurants and Businesses

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Google seems to add more and more of these quick OneBox search tricks to its search engine all the time, so count on more popping up in the future. Google also introduces new tricks for specific events, like the medal count during the Olympics, or the election hub during the elections. With these tricks you’ll be the fastest Googler around, and will certainly impress everyone with how quickly you can acquire all types of knowledge.

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