Microsoft says better than Google soon
 
Microsoft will introduce a search engine better than Google in six months in the United States and Britain followed by Europe, its European president said this week.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (1 March): ``What we're saying is that in six months' time we'll be more relevant in the US market place than Google,'' said Neil Holloway, Microsoft president for Europe, Middle East and Africa.

``The quality of our search and the relevance of our search from a solution perspective to the consumer will be more relevant,'' he told the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit.

But, according to Reuters, being good is not enough to win the hearts and minds of consumers already dedicated to another standard.

Reuters says that US courts and the European Commission found Microsoft countered that problem by trying to kill off Netscape's browser and RealNetworks audiovisual software by bundling its competing code into Windows, violating antitrust laws.

However, according to Reuters, bundling would find little purchase against Google because it lives insulated from Microsoft on the Web, unlike other applications that were easy game for the software giant as they perched directly on Windows.

Holloway said that the company has no plans to integrate its search engine into Vista, the new Microsoft Windows operating system set to replace Windows XP later this year or early next year

Reuters reports that Microsoft will put its search engine into its widely used communications tools Windows Messenger and Hotmail.

The company says that timing in Europe will be pegged to that in the United States, with the UK probably be at the same time, France maybe three months behind, and Germany maybe three months behind.

Reuters reports that Holoway said that Microsoft's goal -- but not its initial offering -- would go beyond finding URLs and instead focus in on the specific information sought by internet users.

{mospagebreaktitle=Deal reached on .com domain price hikes}Deal reached on .com domain price hikes

The board of the Internet's main oversight agency has approved a deal under which VeriSign must meet some conditions in order to raise fees for ''.com'' domain names.

The Associated Press reports in The New York Times (1 March) that VeriSign operates the servers that constitute the internet's core address book for ''.com'' web sites, making sure that people find web sites. The company sells ''.com'' addresses for US$6 each to registrars who then sell them to the public.

According to the AP., under the deal approved Tuesday by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, VeriSign is allowed to raise its annual fee for domain names, which registrars could then pass along to customers.

The deal limits VeriSign's annual price increases to 7 percent in four of the next six years. In two of the years, VeriSign could raise fees by the same percentage only in response to a security threat or to comply with an ICANN mandate.

AP says that the ICANN board was divided on the issue, voting 9 to 5 for approval, with one abstention. Statements by the board members were not immediately available.

The deal has faced opposition from some registrars, who have complained about the price increases and the fact that like previous contracts, it gives VeriSign the first right to renew the contract with ICANN when it expires in 2012.

The AP report says that the deal needs final approval by the US Department of Commerce.

VeriSign said it was ''pleased'' with ICANN's approval, and noted that it was similar to a deal reached last year over ''.net'' domain names, which the company also administers.

{mospagebreaktitle=Microsoft working on paperback-sized PC}Microsoft working on paperback-sized PC

Start with what the much-hyped Microsoft Corp. project code-named Origami is not. It's not a music player designed to take on Apple Computer Inc.'s mega-popular iPod. And it's not a portable version of Microsoft's Xbox videogame console. And it won't -- at least not yet -- replace your cellular phone or your regular computer.

The Associated Press reports that the much-hyped Microsoft project code-named Origami is the moniker for the first iteration of paperback-sized computers that will run Microsoft's regular Windows XP operating system, a person close to Microsoft told AP.

According to AP., the person, who is familiar with the plans, spoke on condition of anonymity because the information is still confidential.

AP reports that the so-called ''ultra-mobile PCs'' are being targeted initially at tech-savvy consumers who want a smaller computer that is easy to take on vacation, in the subway or anywhere else where a full-sized PC would seem too bulky, this person said.

Microsoft has confirmed that an ultra-mobile PC is in the works, but the company has declined to offer specific details. A Web site set up by the company, www.origamiproject.com, has been teasing would-be buyers with tidbits about the project, and fueling speculation about what the new devices might do.

AP says that the early versions are expected to debut at an industry conference on 9 March, and to be available to consumers soon after, the person familiar with the plans said.

They will be built by a variety of computer makers, this person said, and are expected to sell for between US$500 and US$1,000, although final prices aren't yet available, reports AP.

{mospagebreaktitle=Oracle unveils corporate search software}Oracle unveils corporate search software

Business software maker Oracle has just announced new software designed to sift through corporate networks, a major push into the red-hot search market dominated by Google.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (1 March) that Oracle's Secure Enterprise Search is a program aimed at helping businesses and organisations quickly scour databases, e-mail systems and other corporate software for information.

Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison unveiled the software in Tokyo, saying it is aimed at filling a gap left by Google, which dominates online searches and has pushed into individual computers with its desktop search software.

The newspaper reports that, illustrating the growing importance of the search market, Ellison described the software as ``one of our biggest products in years.''

Companies such as top software company Microsoft and Yahoo have also been rolling out new and updated search products as they try to chip away at Google's dominance.

{mospagebreaktitle=Japan reports leap in cybercrime}Japan reports leap in cybercrime

The number of people arrested for fraud and other crimes linked to the internet jumped almost 52 percent last year to a record 3,161, Japan's National Police Agency says.

The Associated Press reports in The New York Times (1 March) that the figure easily surpassed the previous year's record of 2,081 arrests, according to a report issued by the NPA, which began compiling statistics on cybercrimes in 1999.

In July, Japan's police beefed up patrols of the internet amid an increase in e-mail scams, the transfer of illegal content and other crimes. For example, four men were arrested in November for allegedly slandering a Japanese celebrity by superimposing her face on a nude picture and posting it online.

{mospagebreaktitle=Global handset makers in fierce competition}Global handset makers in fierce competition

The choice of brands in the mobile phone market will reduce drastically in the coming years as smaller players exit the cut-throat market, according to a Reuters reeport in The new York Times (1 March).

Reuters says that high research and development costs and a trend toward low-margin but high-volume phones are likely to force further consolidation among mobile handset makers.

The global top five -- Nokia, Motorola, Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and Sony Ericsson -- already make roughly 75 percent of all mobile phones.

Around 45 vendors are left fighting for the remaining 25 percent share, which analysts say is clearly untenable.

Reuters reports that in February, top handset maker Nokia and Sanyo Electric said they would jointly develop and make phones for the CDMA standard, which is dominant in the United States and popular in parts of Latin America and Asia.

The same month, Motorola Chief Executive Ed Zander said the company was considering a partnership with a Japanese phone maker to launch handsets to boost its presence in Japan.

Reuters says that Taiwan's top mobile phone and computer gear maker, BenQ, took over the loss-making cell phone unit of Germany's Siemens AG in October last year.

Analysts say technical expertise, mega advertising budgets and multiple manufacturing sites, mainly in fast-growing markets such as China and India, will separate the men from the boys.

Analysts say Chinese and Japanese handset makers are especially at risk as they battle sliding margins and rising competition from European, American and Korean rivals, reports Reuters.

{mospagebreaktitle=Nokia's head of design departs}Nokia's head of design departs

Nokia's head of design, Frank Nuovo, is to leave after more than 16 years of coming up with models which helped the Finnish firm become the world's biggest mobile phone maker.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (1 March) that Nuovo, 45, will hand over on 1 April to Alastair Curtis, who is currently in charge of design in the unit that produces Nokia's lowest-cost handsets, the company said on Wednesday.

Nokia said Nuovo, who has been called the ``Calvin Klein of cellular communication,'' will continue in a consulting role and stay as principal designer at Vertu, its luxury phone brand.

Reuters says that Nokia, which has sold more than a billion mobile phones, will also reorganise and centralise design in a global team to oversee all of its handsets and make sure it is more nimble.

Nuovo was credited with coming up with Nokia's original design style, as well as changeable phone faces to personalise phones. The company worked to hide the antenna in the case and make its handsets easy to use.

But, says Reuters, mobile phone design has been in tumult since the launch of Motorola's trend-setting RAZR and other rivals, including Samsung Electronics and Sony Ericsson, have also scrambled for the design advantage, with a phone's looks counting as much as what it can do.

{mospagebreaktitle=TiVo to offer tight controls on children's viewing}TiVo to offer tight controls on children's viewing

In a new twist on helping parents control what children watch on television, TiVo is to announce in the US a service that lets its video recorders limit children to watching shows approved by one of two groups promoting family programming.

The New York Times reports (2 March) that parental controls have been built into most television and cable set-top boxes for the last decade, allowing parents to limit their children's viewing to shows that have certain ratings as assigned by the networks. TiVo as well had a parental control system based on these ratings. Many digital cable boxes offer even more options, letting parents select individual programs to block.

However, the newspaper reports that Tom Rogers, TiVo's chief executive, said existing technology and ratings had been rarely used because both the software and the ratings were too difficult to understand.

The newspaper says that TiVo has been hard hit by cable and satellite companies that are selling set-top boxes with video recorders built in, and its share price is off about 30 percent since last July. So the company is focusing on software that will differentiate its offering from generic alternatives. Another feature under development will let users share lists of their favorite shows with their friends.

According to the NYT., the move on children's viewing comes at a time of increasing focus on giving parents more control. Several large cable companies have said they will offer a "family tier" or bundle of channels deemed appropriate for children.

{mospagebreaktitle=Yahoo backing away from tv-style web shows}Yahoo backing away from tv-style web shows

After proclaiming grand plans to bring elaborately produced sitcoms, talk shows and other television-style programs to the internet, the head of Yahoo's Media Group has said that he was sharply scaling back those efforts. He said the group would shift its focus to content acquired from other media companies or submitted by users.

The New York Times reports (2 March) that the executive, Lloyd Braun, the former chairman of ABC Entertainment, was the subject of speculation in recent weeks that he was leaving Yahoo over differences with its chief executive, Terry S. Semel.

According to the newspaper, with advertisers moving large parts of their budgets online, the market for content, created by professionals, bloggers and individual users, is expanding rapidly '” as is the competition. Major media companies are developing video-based programming for the internet. Myspace.com, purchased last year by the News Corporation, has become a major site based on user-contributed content. Many US Bill to address fears of blocked Net accessrt-ups, like youtube.com, seek to follow suit.

The NYT reports that Mr. Braun said that the way to keep users on Yahoo's site longer '” and thus be able to show them more advertising '” was to offer ways they can create their own content and look at content created by others.

{mospagebreaktitle=US Bill to address fears of blocked Net access}US Bill to address fears of blocked Net access

New legislation is being introduced in the US by the Democrats that would prohibit internet network operators from charging companies for faster delivery of their content to consumers or favoring some content providers over others.

The New York Times reports (2 March) that the bill is meant to ease growing fears that open internet access may be blocked or compromised by the Bell phone carriers and cable operators, which may create tiers of service for delivering content to consumers, much the way the post office charges more for overnight mail delivery than for regular delivery.

Consumer groups and internet companies like Google and Amazon contend that any move by the network operators to levy fees for premium delivery service would harm web sites that are unwilling to pay for faster delivery.

According to the newspaper, the legislation, called the Internet Non-Discrimination Act of 2006, aims to prohibit network operators from assessing charges that give some content providers better access than others or blocking its subscribers from accessing content.

The Senator introducing the legislation, said his bill would prevent network operators from giving preferential treatment to affiliated companies.

The NYT reports that the bill more squarely confronts the concerns of consumer groups than a broader bill proposed last summer which would prevent internet service providers from blocking access, but would largely leave network operators to manage their own networks, including potentially charging content providers for a premium service.

 The Federal Communications Commission has largely stood on the sidelines as this debate as evolved. Though the commission has said it supports the principle of open, undifferentiated access to the networks, it has not taken any regulatory action, the NYT reports.

{mospagebreaktitle=Phone, media firms see mobile ads soon}Phone, media firms see mobile ads soon

Cellphone and media companies expect to see a sizable market for advertising on cellphones in coming years, with options including advertising-subsidised video services, top executives have said this week.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (1 March) that Viacom, which runs MTV and Comedy Central, is working with major operators, and plans to play a major role in the first trials of mobile ads in the next year.

Sprint Nextel, the No. 3 US mobile provider, is keen to offer subsidised wireless videos and local ads to cellphones.

A Viacom spokesman said the company, which works with about 70 cellphone companies around the world, is talking to ``various'' operators about details of how advertising could work. He believes mobile video ads would have to be very short to succeed, and would depend on customers allowing them in exchange for deals on their cell phone.

{mospagebreaktitle=AP, MSN launch online video-news service}AP, MSN launch online video-news service

The Associated Press and Microsoft have just launched a new service which allows the news cooperative's member web sites to offer free video news clips and share in advertising revenue generated from the service.

AP reports in The New York Times (1 March) that the AP Online Video Network, which is powered by Microsoft's MSN Video, went live after midnight on Wednesday and featured video news stories of New Orleans cleaning up after Mardi Gras and a special section about the six-month anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the storm's legacy in the Gulf Coast region.

About 40 video clips a day produced by the AP will be included in the service, which will cover national and international news as well as business, technology and entertainment stories.

The report says that the AP, the world's oldest and largest newsgathering agency, said the service will reach an initial audience of 45 million unique visitors. A cooperative owned by US news organisations, the AP is offering the videos free to its members and other customers, with revenue coming from advertisements placed before the news clips.

{mospagebreaktitle=Microsoft seeking ways to help illiterate}Microsoft seeking ways to help illiterate

Working with a local advocacy group at a research lab in India, Microsoft has developed a prototype of a system that would connect illiterate domestic workers in India with families seeking their services. The system uses pictures, video and voice commands to tell women what jobs are available, how much the jobs pay and where they are.

The Associated Press reports in The New York Times (1 March) that the goal is to help the women see how technology can make finding work more efficient, as the first step toward creating broader tools to help illiterate people benefit from technological advances.

The software was on display Wednesday as part of Microsoft Research TechFest, an annual gathering of employees from the company's various research and development centres. The researchers, located in China, India, England and the United States, provide the company with a mix of far-flung technology and more practical applications.

The AP reports that researchers on the Indian project say they have had to overcome their preconceptions about how the technology should work, and why people would want to use it.

{mospagebreaktitle=Viacom entering social networking market}Viacom entering social networking market 

In the US., MTV owner Viacom plans to enter the business of connecting youth viewers on the internet this year, a top Viacom executive said on Wednesday, amid threats of losing its cool cachet to News Corp.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (1 March) that for MTV, once a music video cable channel that transformed into a global programming powerhouse, the fight to stay relevant with fickle young tastemakers on the Web has only just begun.

The report says that Viacom has met with several of the handful of so-called internet social networking businesses, but has not decided whether it would enter the market through partnerships or acquisitions.

According to Reuters, the move would pit the owner of MTV Networks, which defines the youth media market, against MySpace.com.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. last year paid US$580 million for the two-year-old MySpace.com, which has attracted some 56 million users to its site where teens and young adults convene to chat, share music and post web sites packed with content they create.

Reuiters says McSpace.com has garnered the fourth highest number of visitors behind Yahoo and Microsoft and is neck and neck with Google.

{mospagebreaktitle=Guilty please on chip pricing}Guilty please on chip pricing

Four executives of Hynix Semiconductor, a South Korean supplier of memory chips, have agreed to plead guilty and serve prison time in the United States for their roles in a price-fixing conspiracy, federal prosecutors have said.

The New York Times reports (2 March) that the guilty pleas are the latest development in the Justice Department's three-and-a-half-year investigation of Hynix, along with its rivals Samsung of South Korea; Infineon Technologies of Germany; and Elpida Memory of Japan. They were suspected of conspiring to fix prices of dynamic random access memory chips from April 1999 to June 2002.

DRAM chips are the most common type of computer memory products, used in personal computers, printers and electronics devices.

The newspaper says that the Hynix executives are the second group of individuals to agree to prison sentences in the investigation.

Thus far, nine individuals and four semiconductor companies have been charged as a result of the investigation, with fines totaling more than US$731 million. Hynix agreed to pay a US$185 million fine in May 2005.