Business

Google is at it again! The company is seemingly on a quest to buy the entire Internet. And that trend continued with its recent purchase of the video sharing website YouTube.com for $1.65 billion in stock. When a corporate buyout takes place, the ... new owners generally attempt to change or compromise their shiny new acquisition in some way. However, that won't be the case with YouTube, according to Google's press release: "YouTube will operate independently to preserve its successful brand and passionate community." Representatives of both Google and YouTube have already made comments about the ... (view more)

Google's ambitious book scanning project has the company embroiled in yet another lawsuit -- this time, from a number of literary organizations. Currently, the Google project returns snippets of content contained in books after a search is run on ... the Google search engine. Those who are interested in reading the entire book have the option of purchasing it or obtaining it through a library. (Source: siliconvalley.com ) Google's project presently includes titles from seven libraries including the libraries of Harvard University and Stanford University. Google says that anyone who does not want ... (view more)

Recently, Best Buy announced its alliance with SanDisk and RealNetworks to develop a music service set for release on October 15th, 2006. (Source: tgdaily.com ) The arrangement uses RealNetworks' Rhapsody service via the Best Buy Digital Music ... electronic store. The system will be available to customers of the SanDisk Sansa e200R line of Rhapsody MP3 players. (Source: technewsworld.com ) Rhapsody is currently the largest subscription-based music service, while SanDisk is the number two producer of MP3 players (falling behind Apple). The SanDisk Rhapsody MP3 players have been reported to cost $ ... (view more)

Recent reports suggest that Apple and Wal-Mart are in talks to negotiate a partnership. The deal will have iTunes movie downloads available on Wal-Mart store shelves. The arrangement may take the form of an iTunes Store "digital coupon" available ... for purchase at Wal-Mart. Customers would then use these coupons to download movies from the iTunes online store. (Source: arstechnica.com ) Such an arrangement would allow Wal-Mart to gain a foothold in the still young downloadable movie industry, while enabling Apple to increase their movie offerings to a wide audience. The potential partnership ... (view more)

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Microsoft have signed a non-exclusive memorandum of understanding that outlines the future partnership between the two organizations. The BBC recently released a statement asserting that the memorandum ... signals the intent of the two companies to determine similar interests, which can lead to the formation of a strategic alliance. (Source: betanews.com ) Although little details were provided at a press conference held on last Wednesday, BBC's Director General Mark Thompson indicated that the joint projects between the two companies involve creating ... (view more)

Late last week, Google released a significantly redesigned version of its RSS Reader, aptly named "Google Reader." The new design improves Google's previous Reader, which was criticized for its unconventional format and instability when it was ... introduced last October. (Source: eweek.com) What is an RSS Reader? Google is promoting it's newly revamped product as "your inbox for the web," which is a great way to think about how an RSS (Rich Site Summary) reader works. An RSS Reader is, quite simply, a software application or a hosted service that collects syndicated content (such as news content ... (view more)

Not long ago, "Google" was added to the Oxford English Dictionary as a verb -- a move that signalled Google's dominance in the search engine industry and recognized the fact that the word "Google" is sometimes synonomous with "search" or "find" when ... it comes to online activity. However, the company has recently come under attack for copyright related issues. On Tuesday, Google posted a blog entry entitled "Our Approach to Content" defending their practices. The blog, authored by David Eun, VP of Content Partnerships, notes Google's vision of organizing world-wide information and making it ... (view more)

Just in time for the holiday shopping season, Google plans to upgrade its product search capabilities via its main search engine. A Google official publicly revealed the news early last week at the Professional eBay Sellers Alliance (PESA) Summit in ... San Francisco. (Source: pcadvisor.co.uk ) How Will the Upgrade Work? According to analysts at Bear Stearns ... (view more)

Although Microsoft has ownership of the globe's most used office suite, the company appears to be feeling threatened by competitors who are offering similar suite software -- for free -- to users. Microsoft released a report last month that ... identifies California-based ThinkFree, a company that offers "free, small, medium featured (word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, address book, e-mail client, file manager), use online or offline." According to BusinessWeek Magazine , to regain its market share from companies such as ThinkFree, Microsoft is now considering an online version of MS ... (view more)

Microsoft reported late Monday that yet another former McAfee virus expert will join the company. He will fill the position of senior security researcher. Jimmy Kuo will join fellow former McAfee alumnus Vincent Gullotto as part of Microsoft's ... Security Research and Response team. Gullotto was hired last month as the general manager of the team. (Source: ZDNet.com ) The Security Research and Response team operates under Microsoft's Security Technology Unit, responsible for securing Microsoft products, including the Windows operating system. (Source: news.com ) Kuo formerly worked in McAfee's ... (view more)