HUA HIN, Thailand - Yahoo and Google's recently formed advertising partnership
came under heavy scrutiny from the European Union this week and will now face a
regulatory review for its antitrust implications.
The deal will give both Google and Yahoo a share of revenue from Google text
ads on Yahoo search results pages. An EU finding against the partnership would
be good news for competitors such as Microsoft and anyone else that's fed up
seeing Google's ads on virtually every web page on the net.
The US Justice Department is also considering a formal challenge to the
partnership, along with a number of state attorneys general who view it as
being anti-competitive.
Since both Google and Yahoo do business in Europe, the deal
could violate European rules that are often far less lenient than those over
the water in the US. The World Association of Newspapers, which represents 76
national newspaper associations and more than 18,000 publications in five
continents, has also publicly opposed the deal. A lengthy statement on its
website outlines the enmity felt towards Google by many in the industry:
Most
publishers are acutely aware that Google's ever-tightening grip on Internet
traffic, its unbridled use of online content, and its dominance in online
advertising poses a very real threat to the continued viability of the
independent content-generation industry.
A collapse would also
hurt Yahoo, whose shares have been falling since the failed takeover bid by
Microsoft this year. Google remains confident the partnership will survive
regulatory examination, at least in Europe. It stated, "The agreement is
limited in scope to Yahoo's US and Canadian websites, and it will not have any
significant effect on Europe." Microsoft fears the deal will give Google too
much control over Internet advertising, in which it already has a more than 60%
market share.
Hewlett
Packard, the world's largest maker of personal computers, is to slash 24,600
jobs, as tech companies feel the financial squeeze increasingly gripping the
United States. Its recent US$13.9 billion takeover of technology company
Electronic Data Systems is said to be the cause of the cuts and where most of
the unlucky employees currently work.
Half of the job cuts will be in the US and they will take place over three
years as the integration of the two companies goes ahead. HP said it planned
eventually to add about half of the jobs back into different positions and
departments. That still leaves 12,000 more people looking for work.
Nvidia also announced job cuts, with the imminent the loss of 360 jobs from its
global workforce. The company has had a bumpy ride in recent months with
problems on its laptop graphics chips and is to set aside $200 million to fix
these.
Gaming Star Wars fans have got something to fire up their light-sabers about as
a new game titled The Force Unleashed went on sale this week. Star Wars
creator George Lucas was the surprise guest at the official launch party in San
Francisco, where fans flocked to get their hands on the latest episode in the
epic story.
The novelty with this game is that it will be the first considered by Lucas as
an actual chapter in the overall story that since the original movie has
developed with three "prequel" films The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones,
and Revenge of the Sith. The series continues with this summer's
animated film, The Clone Wars and concludes with the original three
films, A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
The game also incorporates two innovative technologies - an artificial
intelligence system, called Euphoria, that ensures things happen differently
each time the game is played, and technology called digital molecular matter,
which will bring about more realistic consequences when things are shattered in
the game. So those with tendencies towards the Dark Side can now play out their
fantasies as an apprentice of Darth Vader and his path to redemption.
Science
Sri Lankan-born astronomer Ray Jayawardhana was part of the team that this week
announced a breakthrough with the discovery and photography of a planet that
appears to be orbiting a star very similar to our own.
In general, the discovery of exoplanets - those outwith our solar system - is
nothing new, more than 200 having been recorded, but these all orbit small, dim
brown dwarf stars. The latest discovery is the first of a planet that appears
to orbit a sun similar to Earth's. There could be many more such out there, but
identifying them is tricky, given the luminosity of the orbited star. This
latest planet is roughly eight times the mass of Jupiter, sits around 330 times
further from its sun than Earth does, and is located about 500 light years
away.
Telecoms
Taiwan-based HTC, whose products compete with Apple's iPhone, steps up the
competition next Tuesday with the unveiling of Google's highly anticipated
Android-powered smartphone.
The demonstration will initially be for reporters and analysts, with the gadget
being available in shops next month, according to US carrier T-Mobile. The
phone is powered by Google's software platform and users will get Google's
version of the Internet, with maps, Gmail, search and all the regular bells and
whistles built in. The extension of Google's grip on the digital world will see
the company trying to take market share away from iPhone and Research In
Motion's BlackBerry.
Security
Republican vice presidential candidate Senator Sarah Palin fell victim to
hackers this week when they gained access to her email account and searched for
personal details.
A number of tech websites have posed their own theories on how the Yahoo
account was hacked, but the most likely is simply tricking the system into
revealing the password and then changing it once access is granted.
A few personal emails and some family snaps were posted on the web by the
hackers, who have yet to be caught. The lesson learned from this is to change
your password often and to try to avoid using free online email providers if
you need to rely on email for anything more than letters to mum!
Martin J Young is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand.
(Copyright 2008 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact us about
sales, syndication and
republishing.)
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
Hewlett
Packard, the world's largest maker of personal computers, is to slash 24,600
jobs, as tech companies feel the financial squeeze increasingly gripping the
United States. Its recent US$13.9 billion takeover of technology company
Electronic Data Systems is said to be the cause of the cuts and where most of
the unlucky employees currently work.
