With Yahoo denied, Microsoft is aiming to improve own search in Europe. Currently Microsoft’s is trailing two percent European market. Most of the search market is dominated by Google.
Yahoo has unveiled an Earth Day initiative to divert mountains of landfill trash, using the Internet to match people unloading “junk” with those that want the stuff. Yahoo is hoping to convince its 500 million users worldwide to join Freecycle.org, a nonprofit devoted to finding new homes for just about anything people are getting rid of.
“Our mission is keeping things out of landfills,” said Deron Beal, who started Freecycle in 2003 and is its lone staff member.
“Junk only becomes junk after it no longer has any use. It is amazing what things people find uses for.”
One Freecycle member put out an online request for socks, with or without holes. She was a school teacher with a class hand puppet project.
Another member gave away a half bottle of left over black hair dye.
Freecycle offerings have included “a box of chocolates, one eaten — take as quickly as possible.”
Beal gave away several tons of concrete chunks left from ripping out his driveway, posting the debris as ‘urbanite” in a Freecycle group.
Source: AFP
It is a practice obviusly every compnay/business does every now and then. Google has changed its terms and conditions recently.
This time around, most of the changes to the Terms and Conditions fall into two broad categories: 1) future products and features and 2) privacy requirements. Specifically, one of the main changes is that the terms anticipate future products that may become available in other advertising formats and mediums, for example Gadget Ads. As we look forward to monetizing more online and offline content, we’ve re-worded some portions of the terms to make them applicable across a broader array of media and formats — anticipating, for example, that future products may be priced, paid, or managed differently than current ones.
We’ve also added some specific requirements that make it necessary for publishers to post and abide by a transparent privacy policy that users see. According to this policy, publishers must notify their users of the use of cookies and/or web beacons to collect data in the ad serving process. This change relates to advertisers’ use of innovative products and features like Gadget Ads and other offerings in the future.
I have never known this before. This certainly is a great news for thousands of Adsense publishers. Google AdSense now allows you to change payee name. The process is very simple. All you need to do is to fill payee name change form provided google and submit. Once reviewd you will be sent a confirmation.
Yahoo Inc
Microsoft responded by calling its offer full and fair, but stopped short of saying it would not raise its offer. Microsoft said in a statement it reserves the right “to pursue all necessary steps” without specifying whether it plans to take its bid straight to Yahoo shareholders.
Still, analysts say Microsoft will probably raise its bid, originally valued at $31 a share, to at least $35, but could be persuaded to go as high as $40. Yahoo’s statement did not suggest what price its board was seeking.
Microsoft wants to complete the largest-ever computer technology merger in a bold strategic move aimed at creating a formidable rival to Web search leader Google Inc
Google News is expanding its news sections beyond election coverage and recommended reading with a Local News area which serves targeted news stories based upon the geolocation of Google users. Once a user is logged into their Google Account, they can enter their zip code in Google News to be served local coverage customized for their area.
Some bloggers have already reported about irrelevent search results. Since, it is the beginning we understand there is alwyas going to be room for imrpovement.
It looks as if Yahoo will be dragged down the aisle by its suitor, Microsoft, no matter how loudly Google speaks its piece. On Monday, other potential mates with deep pockets denied they would try to beat Microsoft Corp.’s $44.6-billion offer even as investment bankers tried to help Yahoo remain unhitched.
But Yahoo Inc.’s board of directors can’t simply say no to such a strong offer without providing a better alternative, analysts said, and few options have emerged that wouldn’t outrage shareholders or antitrust regulators. The company that Microsoft and Yahoo fear most in the Internet business — Google Inc. — is trying to quash the deal by also courting Yahoo.
On Friday, the day Microsoft Corp. made its bid public, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt called Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang to offer help in fending off the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant, according to a person familiar with the discussion. The companies, which are both based in Silicon Valley, have discussed having Google run Yahoo’s search-engine business.
Some analysts said the Microsoft bid was low because even though Yahoo stock was trading in the teens last week, it had hit the mid-$30s as recently as October. They also pointed to Yahoo’s stakes in Yahoo Japan Corp. and China’s Alibaba Group Holding, which have a total market value of more than $12 a share.
Source: LA Times.
Microsoft on Friday courted Yahoo with a 44.6-billion-U.S.-dollar merger offer, or 31 dollars per share.
It came after almost a year of debate and the realization that neither firm can take on the giant that is Google. Assuming the merger goes ahead, the Microsoft-Yahoo marriage looks far from being a bed of roses capable of taking on Google and reshaping cyberspace.
The online advertising market that Microsoft has been pursuing for years is one of the key goals of the takeover. In his letter to Yahoo’s board of directors, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer touted “significant benefits of scale in advertising platform economics” as one of the key advantages of the acquisition.
Currently, Google is widely seen to be the technology and market leader in online advertising. According to estimates by Market space Advisory, a U.S. strategy consulting firm, 42 percent of online advertising business is dominated by Google while Microsoft, Yahoo, and Time Warner’s AOL combined have about the same percentage of the market.
Source: Xinhua News