Redmond's biz-dev gorillas have strong-armed Sun Microsystems into bundling the MSN toolbar as an optional add-on to Sun's Java downloads in the US. What does the -powered toolbar have to do with Java? Nothing! That's the genius of it.A dozen years ago, Microsoft broke Sun's run-anywhere Java technology, which was…

Google in $3 billion Russian lawsuit

Owen Thomas

11/06/08 5:40pm

A Russian company, Era Volodeya seeks $3 billion in damages for allegedly violating its patent on contextual advertisements, the keyword-matching technique which has made Google the largest company in online advertising. I'm waiting for some tipster to tell me that Era Volodeya is secretly a KGB front with ties to…

America's CTO bows to the feds on Yahoo-Google deal

Owen Thomas

11/04/08 12:00pm

When did Eric Schmidt turn into such a wimp? When Google and Yahoo first proposed a deal to have Google sell search ads for Yahoo, Schmidt brazenly gave antitrust regulators a four-month deadline to review it. After that, Google would blaze ahead with the deal. The deadline came and went. Over the weekend, Google and…

3 reasons why Google's bookstore will be a disaster

Owen Thomas

10/31/08 5:40pm

The lovingly jumbled piles of books at Shakespeare & Co., the famous Paris bookstore, must madden Googlers. All that information, unorganized! In the wake of its $125 million settlement of a lawsuit filed by book publishers, Google is now thinking about turning its money-burning Book Search product into an . This will…

"Is Google playing chicken with the Justice Department?"

Owen Thomas

10/31/08 2:20pm

That's the question about the company's obvious leaks to the Wall Street Journal which suggest it might walk away from talks with the government about its search deal with Yahoo. Short answer: Yes, yes it is. []

The Yahoo-Google deal? Let's just assume that's not happening

Owen Thomas

10/29/08 1:40pm

Yahoo's deal to outsource some of its search advertising to Google continues to face scrutiny on Capitol Hill. Google CEO Eric Schmidt had said he'd carry out the deal whether or not regulators had finished their review. Regulators called his bluff, and America's CTO has now lost face, not to mention credibility. Why…

Mahalo is hiring

Owen Thomas

10/27/08 2:40pm

"Do you know that you're amongst the very best, but can't find a company that appreciates you or gives you the opportunity you deserve?" So begins Mahalo's come-on to developers. The bulldog-powered search engine just . Why is it hiring more? We're sure Jason Calacanis, Mahalo's voluble CEO, has some entertaining…

Is Microsoft ripping off Jason Calacanis's ailing startup?

Owen Thomas

10/23/08 3:20pm

Talk about adding insult to injury. As Jason Calacanis was sucking his thumb about the coming startup depression, Microsoft quietly launched a competitor to his intern-edited search engine, which has just gone through the . Redmond's experimental entry into the market is called , an experiment in collaborative editing…

SearchMe lays off 20 percent

Paul Boutin

10/17/08 2:40pm

"Visual search engine" company SearchMe had, according to CrunchBase, 52 employees and $43.6 million in funding, led by Sequoia Capital. Just two weeks ago, TechCrunch ranked the company in "Startups Best Positioned To Weather A Downturn." But VentureBeat the company has fired 20 percent of its staff. Using the…

Google gamed by small businesses

Paul Boutin

10/15/08 6:20pm

Search marketing icon Danny Sullivan recently moved back to his native Southern California after 12 years in a small English town. Yeah, we thought he was British, too. Sullivan documented several infuriating problems he hit trying to connect with local businesses through Google. One stands out, because it was caused…

Yandex nixes IPO, which sucks for that Yahoo it just hired

Owen Thomas

10/13/08 1:00pm

This summer's no-brainer career move now looks like a headscratcher. Vish Makhijani left his job as Yahoo's head of search in June to join Yandex, a Russian search engine which had filed for a $3 billion public offering the month before. Getting pre-IPO stock options, with the exit in plain sight? Much better than…

Google CEO says Internet is a "cesspool" without brands

Paul Boutin

10/08/08 6:20pm

"Brands are the solution, not the problem. Brands are how you sort out the cesspool," Eric Schmidt told an audience of magazine publishers assembled at Google yesterday. Wait, what happened to the magic Google algorithm that reverse-engineers our reputations? Does it now rank pages by , too? I hope so, because when I…

Facebook adds subpar search from Microsoft

Owen Thomas

10/07/08 8:00pm

Forget Facebook's controversial redesign. Users of the social network have something new to complain about: third-rate Web search, provided by Microsoft. The two moves are connected; when ad-hating CEO Mark Zuckerberg forced through the revamp of Facebook's profile pages, he bumped Microsoft-sold banners off of them.…

Yahoo, Google delay ad deal

Owen Thomas

10/06/08 1:32pm

After Google CEO Eric Schmidt insisted for months that a partnership to have Google sell ads on Yahoo would launch on time, regardless of the status of the government's investigation, he has now delayed it. That's the news. What's not news? That Schmidt lies whenever it's convenient to him. Remember how he said Google…

Is Ask.com feeling lucky?

Owen Thomas

10/06/08 10:52am

Ask.com's latest revamp, unveiled by CEO Jim Safka to the New York Times, attempts to dive deeper into the Web, pulling "structured data," a fashionable buzzword, from sources like TV listings and health databases. Give Barry Diller's scrappy search engine, owned by his IAC conglomerate, this much: When at first it…

Why is Google afraid of links?

Paul Boutin

10/03/08 12:40pm

Google's official advice for boosting a website's presence in Google search results has been the same for years: "Have other relevant sites link to yours.” The search engine's original PageRank formula was based entirely on which pages link to which other pages — a mathematical analogy to real-world reputations. But…

Googling "I Google Myself"

Owen Thomas

10/02/08 3:20pm

Funny because it's true: Web-video comedienne Kara Luiz's "I Google Myself" aptly charts the YouTube's generation self-obsession. The best part: A blog post about the video is already the No. 2 Google result for Luiz's name.

Search for an eBay item, get $250 back from Microsoft's shareholders

Owen Thomas

10/01/08 4:40pm

Wonder why Microsoft is losing so much money online? Its Live Cashback offer isn't the sole reason, but it's symptomatic of the problem. Since June, Microsoft has included eBay in a program which offers users of its Windows Live search engine discounts when they click on ads and buy a product. Coupon-tracking blogs …

Google launches vintage search index from 2001

Jackson West

10/01/08 4:00am

As part of Google's tenth anniversary, the company has partnered with the Internet Archive to offer a slice of the World Wide Web circa 2001 — the oldest available archive of the company's search index. Before the Paris Hilton sex tape, before lolcats, back when Google was just another search engine in the roster of …

Yahoo thinks you're looking for porn

Owen Thomas

9/30/08 3:00pm

A reader reports that an attempt to get information from Yahoo about ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition got diverted into a search for porn, thanks to Yahoo's automated suggestions. What's the worst search-term suggestion you've gotten? Tell everyone in the comments.

Microsoft does a victory dance on Sun's head

Google in $3 billion Russian lawsuit

America's CTO bows to the feds on Yahoo-Google deal

3 reasons why Google's bookstore will be a disaster

"Is Google playing chicken with the Justice Department?"

The Yahoo-Google deal? Let's just assume that's not happening

Mahalo is hiring

Is Microsoft ripping off Jason Calacanis's ailing startup?

SearchMe lays off 20 percent

Google gamed by small businesses

Yandex nixes IPO, which sucks for that Yahoo it just hired

Google CEO says Internet is a "cesspool" without brands

Facebook adds subpar search from Microsoft

Yahoo, Google delay ad deal

Is Ask.com feeling lucky?

Why is Google afraid of links?

Googling "I Google Myself"

Search for an eBay item, get $250 back from Microsoft's shareholders

Google launches vintage search index from 2001

Yahoo thinks you're looking for porn

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