Is Microsoft Throwing More Than Bing At Google?

Looks like Google is being called into be questioned by Texas Attorney General for it's supposedly anti-trust conduct.
The Texas AG already have asked about some companies that have complaints against Google.It seems that some of the web sites wants to be in the top regardless of their content or intentions. These companies have alleged that Google is unfair in its conduct of search engine ranking and what ever else and even have sought courts aid and have failed in proving their cases.
According to a post published on Google's public policy blog, some of these companies seem to have some common facts  related Microsoft behind them. Comscore tells us that there is a big difference in search engine market share between the two companies. After trying to woe users with various offerings to use Bing for search, it seems the reactions are bit stagnant. Bing has 11% while Google has 65.8% with Yahoo in the middle with 17.1% in explicit core searches in July 2010. (“Explicit Core Search” excludes contextually driven searches that do not reflect specific user intent to interact with the search results.)
So is it possible that this is similar to Microsoft's SCO tool against Linux a few years ago, against Google? Well these are the sites sighted by Google in the post, you may decide! Follow those links below as they are not Google sites.

• Foundem -- the British price comparison site that is backed by ICOMP, an organization funded largely by Microsoft. They claim that Google’s algorithms demote their site because they are a direct competitor to our search engine. The reality is that we don’t discriminate against competitors. Indeed, companies like Amazon, Shopping.com and Expedia typically rank very high in our results because of the quality of the service they offer users. Various experts have taken a closer look at the quality of Foundem’s website, and New York Law School professor James Grimmelmann concluded, “I want Google to be able to rank them poorly.”

• SourceTool/TradeComet - SourceTool is a website run by parent company TradeComet, whose private antitrust lawsuit against Google was dismissed by a federal judge earlier this year. The media have noted that TradeComet is represented by longtime Microsoft antitrust attorneys, and independent search experts have called SourceTool a “click arbitrage” site with little original content.

• myTriggers - Another site represented by Microsoft’s antitrust attorneys, myTriggers alleges that they suffered a drop in traffic because Google reduced their ad quality ratings. But recent filings have revealed that the company’s own servers overheated, explaining their reduced traffic.

"Social Networking System" Patented By Amazon

Using PlanetAll in 1998, Amazon has convinced USPTO that it invented the "Social Networking System", with a description which sounds like good old BBS, used in the dial up days;

'A networked computer system provides various services for assisting users in locating, and establishing contact relationships with, other users. For example, in one embodiment, users can identify other users based on their affiliations with particular schools or other organizations. The system also provides a mechanism for a user to selectively establish contact relationships or connections with other users, and to grant permissions for such other users to view personal information of the user. The system may also include features for enabling users to identify contacts of their respective contacts. In addition, the system may automatically notify users of personal information updates made by their respective contacts.'

You can socially engage in a discussion about this patent, prior arts associated and what facebook is going to do at Good old Slashdot!

Cold War Kids At CAL Berkeley On CAL Day!

 
UC Berkeley is having a free concert on Saturday, April 17 | 4-6 p.m. | Memorial Glade

Bring your blanket and sit on the grass to cap off Cal Day with live music on Memorial Glade with the Cold War Kids, an indie rock band from Long Beach. Band members are Nathan Willett (lead vocals, piano, guitar), Jonnie Russell (guitar, vocals, percussion), Matt Maust (bass guitar), and Matt Aveiro (drums). This event, sponsored by the Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC), celebrates Global Outreach (GO) Week, highlighting UC Berkeley's commitment to public service and global awareness.

SXSW Foursquare Badges Released By Mistake

Technical misadventure has released SXSW 2010 Special Edition badges to users this morning at forsquarebadg.es and two users who got the badge have tweeterd their luck.
The site also revealed 15 special badges to be released at this year’s SXSW 2010 conference, which starts this week in Austin, Texas.

City Tours From Google Labs

Google Labs have published about multi-day (or single day if you are the fast walking type) walking tours of major cities given a starting address. For startes, there are a few cities and walks suggested;

• Union Square, San Francisco
• 34th Street and 5th, New York
• London, England
• Dame Street, Dublin, Ireland
  

Except Dublin, I have walked the other cities, more or same the suggested routes. Let Google find nearby points of interest for you or (new!) create your own tours from your own and others' "My Maps".

Try City Tours

Friendster Sold To MOL Global.

Friendster Mol Global Weseepeople.blogspot.com

The social networking site Friendster has been sold to MOL Global, a Malaysian payments company. Friendster is one of the oldest social networking companies that had a face lift recently. Eventhough it has lost the glamour a glitter in the USA, it still has a lot of users (about 75 Million) else where, mostly in Asia.
MOL Global Pte. Ltd, an affiliate of leading online payment solutions provider MOL AccessPortal Berhad handles payment transactions totaling  an annual payment volume of over US$200 million. It provides systems to collect payments for online content and services.

“The merger with Friendster will continue to transform the social networking industry, combining a highly intuitive and successful social media site and online marketing channel with an integrated payment platform and content network which includes games, goods, gifts, music and video. We are creating a unique company that will be well positioned to provide content to a huge, regional user base, here in Southeast Asia,” said Ganesh Kumar Bangah, president and chief executive officer of MOL.

“Friendster and MOL are both industry pioneers and are close partners. This combination is a natural progression of our relationship and will be an industry-changing event, The new combined entity gives Friendster the kind of financial backing, retail distribution, and e-commerce infrastructure that will enable us to accelerate our strategy and create a locally relevant, fun experience for our users in Asia, both on and offline.” ” said Richard Kimber, chief executive officer at Friendster.

The combined entity will maintain offices in various locations, around the world, including Mountain View, CA (USA), the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore. Ganesh Kumar Bangah will become the Group Chief Executive Officer of the combined entity while Richard Kimber will become the Non-Executive Chairman.

Google Friend Connect Becomes More Social.

Google Friend Connect has added a whole slew of features that might help them to fend off some of the effects of facebook onslaught. Due to popularity of facebook the facebook connect has many more members and sites.
Perhaps time that we have friend connect on all our blogs ! :)
Google Friend Connect Gains Ground With New Features | VOIP IP Telephony

Becoming And Staying Digitally Literate!

Being online and understanding your surroundings is not an easy task. When you are unsure of your position in any situation, it leads to you being vulnerable. Little children, and young adults are often targets of unscrupulous people and only way to keep them safe is to educate parents and educators about the digital world.
So Google and iKeepSafeare working together to take a tour through the country to help parents and educators across the country become more involved in kids' online activities. To begin the tour in proper manner, the team is holding a panel discussion in the capital regarding issues concerning educating a protecting youngsters. The best part of it is that they will be talking about "How to talk to young people about online safety"

"Playing and Staying Safe Online"
An expert panel discussion on how to help kids become responsible members of the digital community.

Panelists:

• Dr. Michael Rich, Director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children's Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health
• Dr. Harry Bloom, Director, California Technology Assistance Project
• Lt. Joe Laramie, Director, Missouri ICAC Task Force
• Darlene Faster, COO, Center for Social and Emotional Education
  

Moderator:

• Marsali Hancock, iKeepSafe President
  

With special presentations from Google and WoogiWorld.

When: Tuesday, November 3, Noon - 1:30pm
Where: Room B-354, Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C.

Lunch will be served.

Please click here to RSVP.

Google Social Search Extend Your Searches Into Your Social Networks.

Google last week told us about a Google's Social Search Demo in "This week in search 10/24/09" and the feature will enhance your searches with information from people you know or blogs that you follow!.
The Google Social Search is an opt-in and it is tightly connected to your Google Profile and GMail. So it will connect to blogs, photo albums, videos, reviews your close ones and friends produce.
Say for instance, if you have your twitter page connected to your Google Profile, the search will extend to blogs, photo albums, videos, reviews written or done by people you follow.
This is available on experiment on Google Labs and like all Google labs fetures, it is an experiment that might make into the mainstream services by Google. You can follow the link after the jump for more information and more videos.

Official Google Blog: Introducing Google Social Search: I finally found my friend's New York blog!

http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/

Yahoo Sexist?

After Go-Go dancers doing lap dances (where in my laptop? or what is that thing on my lap) at Yahoo Hack Day 2009 in Taiwan. Hack Day is deviced to attract developers to build widgets and apps for the Yahoo platforms.
But this stunt may have attracted many young developers, who lost their laptops, there were plenty of flack coming from all sort of people in the society.

I am not surprised at either side, knowing how sexist some of the Asian countries are and hypocrits protesting these dancers while having whore houses which are called Massage parlors in the back yards, abusing similar young women. (massage parlors San Francisco, search Massage Parlors New York at google)
Yahoo should have known better and done better, and so the critics!
Yahoo posted an apology on the developer blog but apperantly the sane thing has happened before, in 2008 as well

I wanted to acknowledge the public reaction generated by the images of female dancers at our Taiwan Open Hack Day this past weekend. Our hack events are designed to give developers an opportunity to learn about our APIs and technologies. As many folks have rightly pointed out, the “Hack Girls” aspect of our Taiwan Hack Day is not reflective of that spirit or purpose. And it’s certainly not the message we want to send about our values here at Yahoo!. Hack Days are about making everyone feel welcome, including women coders and technologists.

 You can read more, specially the comments at yahoo blog.