Technology - NewsFactor

Microsoft engineers, in collaboration with researchers at several Asian institutions, have proposed a new method for improving upon the Web page rankings produced by today's search engine requests. Called BrowseRank, the new approach adds a human factor to the process by weighing how people actually use the Internet, the collaborators reported in a paper recently presented before the Special Interest Group on Information Retrieval.

When Apple released its iPhone 2.0 software earlier this month, CEO Steve Jobs said it would provide the best user experience and the most advanced software platform for a mobile device. However, glitches in the software are leaving users frustrated, with a laundry list of complaints.

Hasbro filed suit Thursday against the creators of the Scrabulous online game. Hasbro alleged the game infringes on the company's Scrabble intellectual-property rights.

Zimbra is offering an office productivity suite. The Yahoo-owned provider of open-source messaging and collaboration tools announced Thursday a free beta of Yahoo Zimbra Desktop, which offers a centralized location for managing e-mail even when a user is not connected to the Internet, plus a tool for creating documents and spreadsheets.

Apple has been boosting sales of Macs with its Mac OS X operating system -- seemingly at Microsoft's expense, as more PC users turn up their noses at Microsoft's Windows Vista. Apple also has had great success with its iPhone, but now that Apple is taking flak because of problems with its MobileMe service, an admiring Microsoft appears ready to go after some of Apple's revenue.

Facebook on Thursday displayed its site redesign and demonstrated its upcoming Facebook Connect at the second annual F8 developer conference in San Francisco.

On Wednesday Google took the lid off a new product called Knol. The search-engine giant first announced it was testing the product in December. Knols are authoritative articles about specific topics, written by people who know about those subjects.

Intel has unveiled eight new Integrated Processor chips that the company claims will yield new levels of performance and energy efficiency versus traditional system-on-chip (SoC) designs.

Forget Yahoo, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Thursday at the company's annual meeting for financial analysts. Any plans for a merger are dead and "there's nothing under discussion between the two of us," Ballmer said. "It didn't work out; we're done."

More than 75 percent of bank Web sites have at least one design flaw that could make customers vulnerable to cybercriminals after their money or even their identity, a University of Michigan study says.

A computer engineer who allegedly held San Francisco's computer system hostage was denied a reduction in his $5 million bond Wednesday after the prosecutor said the system had been rigged to melt down during routine maintenance.

Last week's iPhone 3G launch appears to have been a success, with the device sold out in virtually all U.S. locations. Calls to local AT&T stores in the metropolitan Chicago area, for example, turned up no phones, and long wait lists. Reasons for the shortage range from Apple underestimating demand to a shortage of components from overseas suppliers.

In a ruling the American Civil Liberties Union is calling a clear victory for free speech, a federal court on Tuesday once again upheld a ban on a law that would criminalize constitutionally protected speech on the Internet.

Google is reportedly ready to purchase the Digg Web site for $200 million. The search giant could beef up its news service with Digg, where readers select and vote on stories from around the Web.

Microsoft is opening the Xbox 360 to third-party software creators in a bold attempt to dramatically expand the number of games available on its platform. The goal is to give gaming aficionados far more choices than rivals Sony and Nintendo are offering.

Media giant Viacom took its fight to the public this week seeking to outline battle lines in its $1 billion lawsuit against YouTube's parent, Google. Viacom filed the lawsuit in March 2007 alleging that YouTube purposefully allowed Viacom's copyrighted content to be distributed on the site. The suit was filed after negotiations between Google and Viacom over licensing content fell apart.

A major flaw in the Internet infrastructure was leaked to the public Monday before many IT directors had the chance to apply security patches. The flaw was discovered weeks ago by Dan Kaminsky, a security expert at IOActive, who has worked with industry leading software developers investigating Internet vulnerabilities.

Nintendo's Wii may be in the lead, but Sony is looking to reach the 150 million sales mark for its PlayStation 3 video-game console within the next few years.

MySpace announced this week it will support the OpenID initiative, which allows users to move identities from one Web platform to another. This avoids multiple log-ins and manual updates of information across applications. Users logged into MySpace should be able to transparently access other sites without a separate log-in.