Old news for October 2006

Yahoo's deal dilemmas

2006.10.31FORTUNE has learned from multiple sources that Yahoo recently approached Time Warner (parent of FORTUNE's publisher) about buying America Online CEO Terry Semel is mulling a number of moves that would impress Wall Street and steal the spotlight from the Google behemoth. Yahoo's likeliest moves: - Buy AOL - Sell to Microsoft - Merge with eBay - Stay the course

Yahoo's New Bookmarks Feature

2006.10.26Yahoo! is working to give its users an easier way to organise, search and share favourite Web pages. It also introducing a simplified version of the Yahoo! toolbar that features a one-click way to bookmark Web pages. The toolbar is a menu of key Yahoo! services that is embedded along the top border of your Web browser.

Google Launches A Custom Search Engine Builder

2006.10.24A very important product from Google. You can build your own search engine for your website and you can tell the engine in which sites to search. It can bee in our site alone or in some selected sites. This way you can narrow and focus your users to the content you want. You can try it here: http://www.google.com/coop/cse/

Eudora will become Open Source in 2007 

2006.10.21Eudora email moves to open source development and delivers final commercial version - Eudora 7.1 for Windows and 6.2.4 for Mac OSX. The open source version of Eudora is targeted to be released during the first half of calendar year 2007 and will be free of charge. Once the open source version of Eudora is released, QUALCOMM will cease to sell Eudora commercially.

YouTube removes 30,000 illegal clips 

2006.10.20Video-sharing service YouTube has wiped nearly 30,000 files from its website after Japanese media companies said their copyright was being infringed. The Japan Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers found 29,549 music video, movie and TV clips had been posted without permission.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 released

2006.10.19Some 18 months after Bill Gates pledged to revamp Internet Explorer, Microsoft is ready with the final version of Internet Explorer 7. The new Web browser, which has been in testing for months, is now available for download from Microsoft's Web site. You can now check your website for compatibility with this new version. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx

Yahoo To Buy Online Advertising Company

2006.10.18Internet media company Yahoo Inc. on Tuesday said it will buy AdInterax, a company that specializes in offering tools to create rich media ads using video and other technologies. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Yahoo will begin offering these tools to marketers at no charge, the company said.

Is Vista the last windows product?

2006.10.16Windows Vista and Office 2007, according to industry analysts, may be the last time Microsoft can really cash in on these lucrative personal computer products, as software is increasingly distributed, developed and used on the Internet. Friday, Microsoft announced that Vista would be shipped in late January and expressed confidence that it would pass regulatory scrutiny. In fast-growing consumer markets, Microsoft is playing catch-up. It trails well behind Google in Internet search. Next month, Microsoft will introduce its Zune music player, in an uphill effort to take on the Apple iPod.

Google Docs: word processor with spreadsheets

2006.10.14Google Inc. is set to introduce on Wednesday information-sharing software that combines the company's Web-based Google Spreadsheets with Writely, the word processor it acquired in March. The combination of Writely and Google Spreadsheets seeks to solve the problem of how people manage and collaborate information stuck in different word processors and spreadsheets by giving individuals or groups Web access to the same data. Google Docs & Spreadsheets, as the hybrid service is now known, marks the latest step by the Web search leader to apply consumer Internet logic to standalone computer programs, a market dominated by rival Microsoft Corp.

Google Merger put Pressure On Yahoo To close the Deal

2006.10.12Yahoo is under pressure to clinch a deal to acquire Facebook.com, the No. 2 U.S. social networking site, to recapture momentum from Google after that company struck a deal to buy YouTube, analysts said Tuesday. Google's deal to buy video entertainment site YouTube, announced on Monday, has raised the bar for other major Internet players to strike quickly as confidence in the sector grows and valuations rise, industry insiders said. A Yahoo acquisition of Facebook, the dominant hangout for college-age students, could approach $1 billion, these people say. Industry sources have previously said the pair have held talks although it is unsure what stage these are currently at

Gaming Firms Prepare To move from the U.S.

2006.10.11Leisure & Gaming and payment processor FireOne joined the list of companies fleeing a U.S. ban on online gaming on Tuesday, as signs emerged that Europe is to open up its gambling market. Leisure & Gaming said it would stop serving U.S. gamblers if President George W. Bush signed into law a ban that was unexpectedly passed by Congress at the start of this month. Leisure & Gaming is in talks to sell its operations in the United States, it added.

Final Vista Test Version Released

2006.10.10Microsoft on Friday issued what it hopes will be the last public test version of Windows Vista, as it works to put the final program in the hands of some businesses by next month. The company said Release Candidate 2 of the new operating system is being made available to its usual crop of technical testers and developers, as well as to some of the enthusiast consumers who are testing the earlier, RC1 version.

Google Buys YouTube

2006.10.09Google Inc. is snapping up YouTube Inc. for $1.65 billion in a deal that catapults the Internet search leader to a starring role in the online video revolution. The all-stock deal announced Monday unites one of the Internet's marquee companies with one of its rapidly rising stars. It came just hours after YouTube unveiled three agreements with media companies in an apparent bid to escape the threat of copyright-infringement lawsuits.

IE7 will be released This Month

2006.10.09The final release of IE7 is fast approaching ... and I mean really fast ... it will be delivered to customers via Automatic Updates a few weeks after it's available for download, which is during October.

Google In talks to buy YouTube

2006.10.07Google Inc. is in talks to acquire online video site YouTube Inc. for roughly $1.6 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter. The discussions are still at a sensitive stage and could well break off, this person says. A spokeswoman for closely held YouTube could not be reached for comment. A Google spokesman said, "We don't comment on rumors and speculation." Rumors of such talks were reported earlier on the TechCrunch blog.

Yahoo releasing IE 7 looks

2006.10.06Yahoo! introduces the hot new look for Fall '06. Update your web browser to the new Internet Explorer 7 (BETA) optimized for Yahoo! See it here.

Google's new code search

2006.10.05Google released today a new search engine for code segments. It started as an internal tool allowing developers to search in the Google source code. After users added a lot of other open source codes to the system, Google released this tool to the public. http://www.google.com/codesearch

Google Gadgets Available For Personal Website

2006.10.04Google said on Tuesday it is making it easier to add hundreds of miniature programs to independent Web sites, in a move that brings handy features to users instead of making users rely on Google.com. The Web search leader has jumped ahead of rivals -- such as Apple Computer Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. -- who offer mini-applets or "gadgets" when the user has installed special software on individual computer desktops. Google Gadgets, which have previously been available for users to add to a Web user's personalised Google homepage or their own computers via Google Desktop software, are now available for Web page owners to add to their own sites.

Amazon's A9 Search Engine Remove Features 

2006.10.03Amazon.com Inc.’s A9 search engine has dropped some of its most widely touted features, including the ability to remember everything a user has ever searched for and a service that showed detailed, street-level images of major cities. The Internet retailer removed the functions, along with several others, late Friday. Amazon.com spokesman Drew Herdener said the company is “shifting its priorities to areas where it can provide the greatest benefit for customers.” A9 had put considerable effort into taking detailed, street-level photos of 20 U.S. cities, which people could use to map directions and find businesses. Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. also have invested heavily in such photographic search technologies. Herdener said it was too early to say what Seattle-based Amazon will do with the technology and images now.

Google buys its garage back

2006.10.02SEARCH ENGINE company Google has done an HP and bought the garage where the company started. According to Associated Press, punters are making a pilgrimage to what is fast becoming a tourist attraction (no really) apparently the busloads of people that show up to take pictures of the house and garage have become an annoyance.

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