<IT WORLD> Yahoo courtship resumes - sort of By Martin J Young
HUA HIN, Thailand - Microsoft's on-off rough wooing of Yahoo continues its
almost sado-masochistic passage, now through a complex deal announced last
weekend involving collaboration between the two companies' online advertising
divisions. Following claims that it had "moved on" from its failed takeover bid
for Yahoo, Microsoft gave few details of the deal in a statement last Sunday,
stating only that it was "considering and has raised with Yahoo an alternative
that would involve a transaction with Yahoo but not an acquisition of all of
Yahoo".
The obvious conclusion here is that Google is still running away with almost
60% of the online advertising pie and Microsoft wants
a bigger slice. The company has hinted that another offer may be dangled in
front of Yahoo should these negotiations result in success for them both.
Yahoo is facing greater pressure from its shareholders to re-enter
negotiations; only last week, billionaire investor and noted corporate raider
Carl Icahn, 72, purchased a sizable chunk of the Internet firm in an effort to
sway the board and get them back to the table with Microsoft. Yahoo has also
been mulling a joint revenue deal with Google following an experimental
advertising share scheme last month running on Yahoo's search results using
Google's superior technology.
This partnership however raises a number of anti-trust concerns as the two
companies combined would control over 80% of the US search advertising market.
It all raises questions over the future of search engines as we know them today
and whether that future means that only paying advertisers will be privy to
those highly sought-after first-page search results. If this is to be the case
then the current concept of impartial technology to search the web for content
based on search terms will become obsolete and millions of websites will no
longer be searchable unless they are paying off Google or whatever
conglomeration has the monopoly at the time. Perhaps the time has come for the
next big thing in online information management ... whatever that maybe!
Internet
Google is in hot water once again over its Street View and mapping technology,
and this time the big guns of the European Union are preparing to fire a salvo
at the search giant. EU data protection chief Peter Hustinx has warned that the
Street View feature would have issues with European privacy laws should the
company launch it in EU countries. The Street View system allows panoramic
photographic views at street level at such detail that individual people can be
made out and windows can be peered through in some instances (see
Google eye too close for comfort, Asia Times Online, March 14, 2008.)
The service, which has been launched across the US and in some Canadian cities,
would need to comply with stricter EU privacy legislation. Hustinx has stated
that he would encourage Google to think about how to do this, as "making
pictures on the street is in many cases not a problem, but making pictures
everywhere is certainly going to create some problems. I'm quite sure they are
aware of this." The Google van carrying the all-seeing roof-mounted camera has
been spotted snapping away in some of Europe's major cities and tourist
attractions. The company stated on its blog site that it is taking this
opportunity to test new face-blurring technology on the busy streets of
Manhattan. This would be a step in the right direction for privacy advocates
but the street ahead is a long one for Google if it wants to stay on the right
side of the law.
Gaming
Slouching in front of a screen with a game controller exercising your thumbs
was once the physical limitation of video games. They have now become a full
body experience thanks to Nintendo's Wii. The console offers motion-based
interaction, making tennis and golf games more lifelike. This week the company
launched a system called "Wii Fit", which takes the technology a step and a
jump further.
The exercise-based game allows the player to use body movements to control it
with the overall goal of improving physical fitness. It comes with a wireless
balance board that can monitor body movements and shifts in weight as the users
follows preset arcade games on the screen that come in four categories -
aerobic exercise, yoga, muscle workouts and balance. A short balance test is
conducted to begin and along with some input data such as height, birth date
and weight, it will calculate your "Wii Fitness Age", a suggested body age is
assigned based on the compiled results. You can then set yourself goals and get
to work putting the fun back into fitness. Wii Fit bounced into US stores this
week retailing at $90.
AMD
has always been considered the enthusiast's choice for those wanting that extra
gaming grunt from their hardware and the company's latest pitch will make that
choice even easier. A new campaign simply called Game! doesn't actually involve
any new products, fancy processors or sleek graphics cards, but offers a
simpler choice for those considering the purchase of a new PC. The marketing
campaign is aimed at the mainstream gamer, who is not one who plays only
solitaire or buys the top end hardware as soon as it hits the shelves. What
most mainstream users, casual gamers and PC buyers want to know is "is this
machine good enough to play the latest games?" They will use the computer both
for work and the occasional shoot out in Half Life 2.
AMD will place Game! stickers on new PCs to inform customers if the machine can
run PC games to a minimum of 30 frames per second. It adopts an approach that
competitors Intel and Nvidia cannot follow as they do not have the hardware
requirements to guarantee performance. AMD PCs will have both company
manufactured CPUs and graphics cards and thus can be rated and labeled
accordingly. There will be two categories, for midrange game capable machines
and high-end ones, with the solitaire-capable boxes using onboard graphics
chips remaining stickerless. AMD hopes that this new marketing strategy will
lead to an increase in sales and awareness of its product range. It may have
got it right this time.
Martin J Young is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand.
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
Internet
