Yahoo move follows decision to work with Microsoft to challenge the dominance of Google
Abhinav Ramnarayan guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 22 September 2009 18.38 BST Article historyInternet company Yahoo is launching a $100m global marketing campaign to promote its revamped web portal and rejuvenate its battered image.
The campaign, which includes Yahoo’s biggest ever investment in the UK market, follows a similar brand campaign by Microsoft for its Bing search engine. Earlier this year the two companies agreed to co-operate in the online search market, to take on the dominance of Google, leaving Yahoo to focus on its online advertising services and its websites, including Yahoo.com.
The Yahoo homepage, which gets over 20 million visitors in the UK alone, now allows users to access applications similar to those on the iPhone. It also provides content such as news specific to the user’s interests below the search bar, similar to Google. It is also in the process of dropping its own scripting language and using open-source alternatives, so that third-party developers can design the applications. The plan is to turn Yahoo back into the one-stop destination that it was for so many internet users in the early days of the web.
The company has been through a major overhaul in operations since Carol Bartz stepped into the chief executive officer position nine months ago. Bartz was brought in to try and turn things around for the beleagured internet giant after the past few years has seen Google take most of its market share in dramatic fashion. Last year, it narrowly avoided succumbing to a hostile takeover bid from rival Microsoft.
The overhaul has seen the company refocus on the global market and divest itself of businesses that it does not consider vital to its interests, selling firms such as Alibaba.com. There is also investor speculation that it has put business email and calendar service Zimbra up for sale for about $500m. Read more…
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The Sun prints apology to Lily Allen over false quotes that first appeared in French sports magazine
Chris Tryhorn guardian.co.uk,
Lily Allen: gained apology from the Sun
The Sun has agreed to pay Lily Allen £10,000 in damages over an article that wrongly alleged she called Victoria Beckham a “monster” and The X Factor judge Cheryl Cole “stupid and superficial”.
The singer denied ever making the comments, which first appeared in a French magazine, and sued for defamation and false attribution of authorship.
Today the Sun apologised to the singer in print and online, following on from a court order made on Wednesday.
The article in question, headlined “Ranting Lily” and published in the Bizarre showbiz column on 7 May, also referred to a tirade against Wag culture and criticism of Cole’s husband, the Chelsea footballer Ashley Cole. Today the Sun printed an apology for the story on page 14: “In May we reported in Bizarre that Lily Allen had made various offensive remarks about David and Victoria Beckham and Ashley and Cheryl Cole in an interview with a magazine.
“We now accept that Lily didn’t say these things to the magazine and we apologise to Lily for the upset and embarrassment caused by repeating them.” Read more…
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Al Gore stars in promo video for new emissions scenario features developed by Google Earth to coincide with Copenhagen climate conference
Watch Al Gore’s promo video for Google Earth’s climate change simulator If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words should we afford Google Earth? Hours can be lost skydiving your way towards your favourite locations. Seeing somewhere you know so well from above provides valuable extra servings of knowledge and perspective.
It’s pleasing, therefore, to see Google announcing on its official blog that it has developed some nifty new features to coincide with the Copenhagen climate conference, now only a matter of weeks away.
In collaboration with the Danish government and others, we are launching a series of Google Earth layers and tours to allow you to explore the potential impacts of climate change on our planet and the solutions for managing it. Working with data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we show on Google Earth the range of expected temperature and precipitation changes under different global emissions scenarios that could occur throughout the century. To help introduce us all to these features, Google has asked Al Gore – who acts as a “senior advisor” to the company – to provide the commentary on an accompanying video.
The search engine has also teamed up with CNN to establish a dedicated YouTube channel. Entitled “Raise Your Voice”, it features a series of videos by world leaders and well-known faces (Emma Thompson and the crown prince of Denmark, to date) to help explain why the conference is so important. Submissions from the public are welcome, and the best will be aired during the conference in the meeting rooms and on CNN.To See The Video Read More
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The comic-book legend who gave the world Spider-Man would rather invent games if he was a young man today
Dan Martin guardian.co.uk
Photograph: Damian Dovarganes/AP
Stan Lee led the American comic book revolution in the 1950s and 1960s as president of Marvel Comics. Under his astute stewardship he built a strong and loyal fanbase for a host of groundbreaking titles such as the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, the X-Men and the iconic Spider-Man series. He also was responsible for turning Marvel Comics into the giant multimedia corporation it is today. The veteran publisher talks to us about Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, the latest videogame featuring his stable of characters …
What was the role you played in developing Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2?
In all honesty I’m not involved with the development. Activision deserves 100% of the credit. But when the game is done they show it to me, and I’m usually so impressed that I tell them, next time you have one of these conventions you’d better have me there so I can talk about it.
What do the characters get up to in Ultimate Alliance?
It has more characters than I have ever seen, more characters that you yourself can take the identity of. You can play it with three other people, and I think it has 150 different ways of having fusion with their powers. It’s based on a theme from Marvel Comics about the superhero wars where the superheroes fought each other. They use their powers exactly the way they do in the comics, yet it’s highly original and a new experience. Read more…
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Evan Williams, left, and Jack Dorsey: ‘confident’
Twitter today confirmed reports of a fresh $100m investment in the company, by announcing that it has closed what it called a “significant round” of funding.
In a post on the company’s blog, co-founder and chief executive Evan Williams said that the three-year-old internet startup had received a new injection of money from four investors - though he did not confirm the size of the deal.
“It was important to us that we find investment partners who share our vision for building a company of enduring value,” he said. “I’m proud of the team we’ve built so far and I’m confident in the future we’ll build together.” Read more…
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Is it better to hang on to a job, or report illegal use of software?
Photograph: Adri Berger/Getty Images
After what feels like a million interviews, you’ve finally gotten a job. You’re still on probation, but it seems like a nice place, and there’s a salary. When you were hired, though, it was mentioned that things are pretty tight.
While working on a new project, you notice that the expensive software it employs flashes up a licence splash screen… suggesting that it’s actually licensed to somewhere completely different. Yup, it’s a pirated copy.
To add to the discomfort, the reason you’re using this software - in fact, the reason you were hired - is because you know it really well: you used to work at the company that made it, where piracy levels led to the last round of cost cuts that pushed you out of the door. Read more…
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Persistent online pirates would have broadband connections constrained in plan backed by breakaway lobby group featuring Lily Allen, George Michael and Sandie Shaw
Richard Wray and Katie Allen
Earlier, Lily Allen said she was dropping her public campaign against copyright theft because ‘the abuse was getting too much’. Photograph: Samir Hussein/Getty
The music industry moved last night to heal a rift over illegal filesharing as artists including Lily Allen, George Michael and Sandie Shaw voted to support a “three-strikes” rule that would see online pirates have their broadband connections constrained.
After a three-hour meeting in London, the Featured Artists Coalition, which emerged as a breakaway lobby group in the summer, backed the government’s proposed introduction of “technical measures” to combat the rising tide of copyright theft. If they ignore two warning letters, persistent illegal filesharers should have their broadband connections throttled “to a level which would render filesharing of media files impractical while leaving basic email and web access”, according to a statement after the meeting.
Earlier in the day, the industry’s umbrella group UK Music sent Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, a letter calling for persistent offenders to be given written warnings. As a last resort, the letter added, flagrant offenders should face having their connections suspended. Read more…
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• The Google digital library row explained
• The Google Books deal forces us to rethink copyright
Bobbie Johnson, San Francisco guardian.co.uk
The Bodleian Library in Oxford is one of Google’s partners in its attempt to digitise millions of books
The judge overseeing Google’s controversial agreement with American publishers to digitise millions of books has delayed a hearing into the $125m deal - effectively shutting down the settlement and sending it back to the drawing board.
Instead of proceeding with the internet giant’s plans to make millions of in-copyright books available online and take a slice of the proceeds - a deal first announced last year - the groups will now go back and renegotiate the settlement in way that satisfies critics including the US Department of Justice.
A hearing into the existing deal had originally been scheduled for early October, as the court prepared to rule on whether the settlement was fair or not. However, following objections posed by Washington, the groups involved in the deal had said they needed more time to re-work the agreement.
New York district judge Denny Chin, who is overseeing the case, said on Thursday that the parties would be granted their request to return to the negotiating table to work out more details. Read more…
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