Portals and Search Engines

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc , IBM and Microsoft Corp reported quarterly results on Thursday, giving investors a mixed snapshot of the health of the technology sector amid a slowing global economy.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Rambler Media, the British-registered owner of Russia's Rambler Internet portal, said on Friday it has agreed to sell the Begun advertising agency to Google Inc for $140 million.

SEATTLE - With a Yahoo Inc. search deal uncertain at best, Microsoft Corp. plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars more than expected in the next year to whip its unprofitable online operations into shape.

SAN FRANCISCO - Google Inc. has successfully tackled a lot of complex problems during its first decade in business, but even the Internet search leader may be hard pressed to find a way to sustain its rapid earnings growth amid a sputtering economy in the United States and parts of Europe.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc reported a weaker-than-expected 35 percent rise in net profit as the company blamed lower returns from managing its huge cash pile rather than softening sales of online advertising.

InformationWeek - The solid-state drives can be used for video streaming, high-transaction data processing, search engine operations, and other high-speed server functions, Sun and Samsung said.

InformationWeek - By combining its Web search technologies with enterprise-specific products, Google hopes to keep up with Microsoft, IBM, and a clutch of innovative startups in the enterprise search arena.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top Microsoft Corp executive said Yahoo Inc's advertising search partnership with Google Inc would leave only one major player in the Internet search business, and said he had been told as much by Yahoo's own chief executive last month.

InformationWeek - The Google Elections Video Search gadget uses speech recognition to transcribed and index speeches by politicians and others.

InformationWeek - The company's complaints may have as much to do with privacy and competition as they do with its own strategic interests in Yahoo's search business.

The U.S. Senate opened hearings on a pending Yahoo-Google partnership Tuesday. The Antitrust, Competition and Consumer Rights committee means to put the screws to each party's legal counsel in an attempt to determine whether the deal violates antitrust laws.

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp reports quarterly results this week, looking to ease the concerns of investors about slower growth at its Windows business and prove that its pursuit of Yahoo Inc is not a distraction.

The ongoing saga among activist investor Carl Icahn, Yahoo and Microsoft hit another flash point 14 Monday, two days after the portal rejected yet another Microsoft offer to buy its search business.

Microsoft said its proposal made Friday to purchase Yahoo's search business was actually the idea of Yahoo Chairman Roy...

InformationWeek - By warning users of a hack on a Net neutrality opponent's Web site, Google was accused of trying to silence critics of a policy it supports.

InformationWeek - Under Icahn's plan, Microsoft also would pay billions of dollars to become the exclusive search provider on all Yahoo sites for a term of 5 years.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Billionaire investor Carl Icahn filed a proxy on Monday to nominate a slate of nine directors to replace Yahoo Inc's board and chief executive after the Internet company rejected Microsoft Corp's latest proposal to buy its search business.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp and billionaire investor Carl Icahn's joint proposal for Yahoo Inc , which was rejected on Saturday, included $2.3 billion in guaranteed annual revenue from search advertising for five years, people familiar with the matter said on Sunday.

SAN FRANCISCO - After more than five months of sparring, the battle for control of Yahoo Inc. has turned into a bare-knuckles brawl with a whiff of desperation hanging over all the key combatants.

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Yahoo said Saturday it has rejected a "ludicrous" deal with Microsoft orchestrated by corporate raider Carl Icahn, who is bent on overthrowing the struggling Internet search pioneer's board.

SUN VALLEY, Idaho - News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch said his media conglomerate is "very unlikely" to be a part of any deal for Yahoo Inc., scuttling talk that Microsoft Corp. was making headway in enlisting the media mogul as part of a deal to break up the Internet search company.

SUN VALLEY, Idaho - Google Inc. backs Yahoo in its effort to stave off an unsolicited takeover by Microsoft Corp. because an independent Yahoo will increase competition in the Internet search and advertising markets, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said here Thursday.

Has Facebook rewritten the concept of the Internet portal?

NEW YORK - Credit card companies know what you've bought. Phone companies know whom you've called. Electronic toll services know where you've gone. Internet search companies know what you've sought.

InformationWeek - BOSS removes many of the usage restrictions on Yahoo's search APIs, encouraging developers to create "credible alternatives to Yahoo and Google."

In a move to build partnerships with third-party developers, Yahoo on Thursday introduced a new open Web services platform. Yahoo Search BOSS (Build Your Own Search Service) gives outside developers unprecedented access to Yahoo's search technology, including the ability to re-rank and control the presentation of results.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - IAC/InterActiveCorp's search engine unit Ask.com said on Thursday struck a deal that allows its search box to be displayed across online photo and video site Photobucket.com.

SAN FRANCISCO - Having fallen so far behind Google Inc. that it became a takeover target, Yahoo Inc. is banking on the creativity of other Web developers to help preserve its independence and regain ground in the lucrative Internet search advertising market.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc will let customers, academics and even rivals build customized Web search services on top of its own technology, introducing a resale model into a major Internet market where it ranks a distant No. 2 to Google Inc.

Yahoo is making its search engine available to third parties to build their own search services, in return for a cut of their...