Yahoo Upgrades Online Search Engine
,----[ Quote]
| Yahoo Inc. has retooled its online search engine to make it more helpful and
| engaging, joining an industrywide wave of improvements that so far haven't
| dented Google Inc.'s dominance.
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071002/yahoo_search.html?.v=3
Yahoo embraces political censorship. See in the news:
Bloggers who risked all to reveal the junta’s brutal crackdown in Burma
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2563937.ece
Lone Remaining Burmese Blogger Uses Lightweight Messaging Service to Broadcast
to the World
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/lone_remaining_burmese_blogger.php
Links on this appended.
U.S. antitrust officials OK Yahoo's Zimbra deal
,----[ Quote
| Zimbra will help Yahoo enhance its decade-old e-mail service, the world's
| largest consumer service with 250 million accounts.
`----
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUKN0130103120071001?rpc=44
Microsoft Launches New Live Services
http://www.inc.com/news/briefs/200710/1001microsoft.html?partner=yahoofeed
Microsoft's online businesses lose _a lot_ of money, compromised privacy
encourage censorship, and help suppressive regimes (just like Yahoo). They
haven't a basis for criticising Google, but...
Google Defends the DoubleClick Deal
,----[ Quote
| Government Influence
|
| The proposals demonstrate the lengths to which Google may go in exchange for
| government approval of its planned $3.1 billion acquisition of online ad
| outfit DoubleClick, which specializes in ad placements across the Web.
| Senators on the Judiciary Committee also heard from Google opponents,
| including Microsoft (MSFT), that would like to see the deal blocked. Marc
| Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center,
| told senators that they should not let the deal go forward without rules
| governing how information can be collected and used, and how long it can be
| kept.
`----
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/sep2007/tc20070927_271085.htm?campaign_id=yhoo
How much did Microsoft pay Marc Rotenberg?
Related:
Microsoft trying to derail Google/DoubleClick deal by lobbying congress
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft has hired lobbying firm Patton Boggs LLC to do work on "competitive
| issues surrounding Google/DoubleClick [sic] merger."
`----
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070816-microsoft-spends-40000-to-lobby-congress-about-googledoubleclick-merger.html
Politicians in Microsoft's Pocket
,----[ Quote ]
| Continuing on the theme of which politicians are receiving money from
| who. Here is a list of candidates who took money from MSFT.
`----
http://www.fonz.net/blog/archives/2007/06/04/politicians-in-microsofts-pocket/
US politicians go to bat for Microsoft
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/26/microsoft_eu_political_lobbying/
Yahoo!, Microsoft ink web pact with Chinese government
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft and Yahoo! have signed a pact with the Chinese government
| that "encourages" the big name web players to record the identities of
| bloggers and censor content. So says Reporters Without Borders, an
| organization that fights for journalistic rights across the globe.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/24/yahoo_and_microsoft_ink_chinese_blogging_pact/
Microsoft, Yahoo Tailor Ads To Users' Behavior
,----[ Quote ]
| Google will remain on the sidelines — at least for now. But its Web portal
| rivals are stepping up their efforts to use behavioral targeting to make
| display, or banner, ads more relevant to Web site visitors.
`----
http://investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=17&issue=20070823
Microsoft sued by Beijing student for privacy infringement
,----[ Quote ]
| Lu argued that Microsoft had violated his legal rights by providing a formal
| contract which had to be accepted in order to proceed with the installation.
`----
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-09/13/content_6718045.htm
,----[ Quote ]
| Vista--Microsoft’s latest operating system--may prove to be most
| appropriately named, especially for those seeking evidence of how a
| computer was used.
`----
http://www.abanet.org/journal/ereport/jy13tkjasn.html
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Forget-about-the-WGA-20-Windows-Vista-Features-and-Services-Harvest-User-Data-for-Microsoft-58752.shtml
Microsoft patents the mother of all adware systems
,----[ Quote ]
| The adware framework would leave almost no data untouched in its quest to
| sell you stuff. It would inspect "user document files, user e-mail files,
| user music files, downloaded podcasts, computer settings, computer status
| messages (e.g., a low memory status or low printer ink)," and more. How could
| we have been so blind as to not see the marketing value in computer status
| messages?
`----
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070717-microsoft-patents-the-mother-of-all-adware-systems.html
Will Microsoft Put The Colonel in the Kernel?
,----[ Quote ]
| "The kernel meets The Colonel in a just-published Microsoft patent
| application for an Advertising Services Architecture, which delivers targeted
| advertising as 'part of the OS.'
`----
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/14/043200
Microsoft Responds to Re-discovery of Vista Network Slowdowns
http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft_Responds_to_Rediscovery_of_Vista_Network_Slowdowns/1188244273
Yahoo in China human rights case
,----[ Quote ]
| A human rights group in the US is suing Yahoo for alleged complicity in
| rights abuses and acts of torture in China.
`----
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6966116.stm
Chinese Internet dissident committed to mental hospital
,----[ Quote ]
| "It is not acceptable that Chinese authorities use such methods to silence
| citizens who have merely peacefully voiced their opinions", expressed the
| organisation in an announcement. Apparently authorities have not abandoned
| the practice of punishing those who have exposed the abuse of power and
| defied censorship by compulsorily committing them to mental institutions.
`----
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/94864/from/rss09
Microsoft could be teaching police to hack Vista
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft may begin training the police in ways to break the
| encryption built into its forthcoming Vista operating system.
`----
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2150555/microsoft-teaching-police-hack
UK holds Microsoft security talks
,----[ Quote ]
| "UK officials are talking to Microsoft over fears the new version of
| Windows could make it harder for police to read suspects' computer files."
`----
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4713018.stm
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