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Yahoo's Asian Negotiations Fly Off the Tracks February 15, 2012 A deal worth billions to Yahoo has reportedly hit a snag. The deal between Yahoo and two of its Asian partners, China's Alibaba Group and Japan's SoftBank, has reached an impasse. The accord would, among other things, save Yahoo $4 billion in U.S. taxes.

EPIC Pushes FTC to Get in the Ring With Google February 09, 2012 The fallout from changes Google plans to make to its privacy policies and terms of service continues, with consumer advocacy group the Electronic Privacy Information Center suing the Federal Trade Commission over the issue. EPIC is seeking injunctive and other relief to force the FTC to enforce a consent order it issued in October against Google.

Yahoo Rumblings Shake Loose Chairman, Board Members February 08, 2012 Yahoo's chairman and three of its board members will step down at the company's next shareholder meeting as part of an extensive overhaul process Yahoo has been undertaking to please investors. Yahoo has faced criticism from shareholders for some time. Years ago, its management refused a buyout offer from Microsoft that would have netted $44.6 billion.

Wolfram Alpha to Get Brainier February 07, 2012 How much does a civil engineer in New Orleans make? What is the average temperature there? What are the differences in the trigonometric functions of sin, cos and tan? What is the exchange rate between the U.S. and the UK right now? Throw one of these questions at Siri, the voice assistant in iPhone 4S, and she will speedily reply. Fueling Siri is Wolfram Alpha, a computational knowledge search engine.

Content Intent, Part 2 February 03, 2012 It can be a little tricky talking about how and why media outlets allow, and indeed encourage, the diffusion of their content throughout the Web. For starters, people tend to be tightlipped about this strategy. No one from CNN, Fox News, MSNBC or Viacom agreed to speak on the record for this article. They are, apparently, much less eager to discuss sharing content than they are to actually share it.

Apple Does the Money Dance January 28, 2012 pple's first fiscal quarter is usually a big one. The way its financial calendar works out, what it considers Q1 ends on Dec. 31, meaning it covers the entire holiday period, as well as maybe a little back-to-school action. But the numbers Apple posted about its most recent Q1 were in an entirely different class than the usual money bender it wakes up from this time of year.

Privacy Advocates Fiercely Furrow Brows at Google January 25, 2012 Google will consolidate about 60 of its privacy policies across its products in March, creating one overarching policy and leaving only about another 10 unchanged for legal and other reasons. The company is also changing its terms of service. It may combine information on Google account holders across all the company's services the account holder uses.

Google's Armor Shows Some Chinks January 20, 2012 Google's investments in mobile advertising and dark clouds over Europe contributed to weak quarterly sales and earnings. Share prices fell 10 percent on the news that Google's fourth quarter sales of $8.13 billion fell short of analyst estimates of $8.41 billion. Profit before certain costs was $9.50 per share, which was a dollar shy of the $10.50 estimate on the street.

Google's Nettlesome Search Gambit January 14, 2012 Google has tuned up its search engine once again, but this time instead of shaving a couple of precious microseconds off its response time, it's decided to adjust some back-end systems in a way that changes the kinds of results people get, depending on who they are.

EPIC to FTC: Did You See What Google Did There? January 12, 2012 The Electronic Privacy Information Center has written to the Federal Trade Commission to look into new features in Google's search engine. The FTC is already looking into whether Google is breaching antitrust regulations by overly favoring its own products in Google searches. In December, Google signed a consent order with the FTC to settle the Commission's investigation of Google Buzz, a social network it rolled out in 2010.

Google Red-Faced Over Chrome Advertising Goof January 03, 2012 Google has become the subject of a series of withering articles calling it out for violating its own advertising policies. The company reportedly has run sponsored marketing ads for its Chrome browser using techniques that last year's Panda algorithm change was designed to prohibit. The paid sponsorships apparently resulted from a misunderstanding between Google and its marketing company, Unruly Media.

Siri's Mysterious Brain Fog December 02, 2011 The performance of Apple's iPhone voice-activated "personal assistant" when asked for information about abortion information has created a tempest of controversy for the Cupertino, Calif. company, though the problem is likely a technological one, rather than part of some hidden political agenda. However, the gaffe could create potential trust problems for Apple in the future.

Apture Acquisition Could Give Chrome Extra Shine November 11, 2011 Google has acquired a startup called Apture that provides a new type of search functionality beneficial to publishers -- or anyone, that is, who hates to see Web users leave a page's content to search out related information. Apture has developed technology that displays links to related information in the content, without forcing the reader to navigate away from the original page.

Could Siri Seriously Sting Google? November 08, 2011 Siri, the voice recognition technology on Apple's new iPhone 4S, has attracted buyers by the millions with its ability to handle complex search queries. Siri's personified as a somewhat sassy female personal assistant, but at least one person finds her downright disturbing: Google Chairman Eric Schmidt.

Google Reveals the Whys and Wherefores Behind Targeted Ads November 01, 2011 Google might soon quit surprising you with ridiculously off-target ads in your search results and Gmail. Or, you may finally find out how they deliver ads that are strikingly right-on. The search leader has announced an upcoming feature called "Why These Ads?"

Will Microsoft Get Lucky With Yahoo? October 22, 2011 Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer recently commented on Yahoo's present situation by saying "Sometimes you're lucky." He was referring to his company's rebuffed attempt to buy Yahoo a few years ago for $47 billion. But that doesn't necessarily mean he thinks owning Yahoo now would be a bad idea -- perhaps all he meant was that by waiting a few years, Microsoft may be able to get Yahoo for a whole lot less than $47 billion.

Microsoft, Alibaba Kick Yahoo's Tires October 20, 2011 Looks like a couple of disparate groups are forming to bid for Yahoo. Microsoft reportedly is working with Silver Lake and one of Silver Lake's investors, the Canada Pension Plan, to put together a proposal that would include several billion dollars from Microsoft, with additional financing arranged by Silver Lake and the CPP Investment Board.

The Fruits of Steve Jobs' Tireless Quest for Perfection October 08, 2011 Steve Jobs' long battle with cancer came to a sad end Wednesday. The Apple cofounder, chairman and former CEO started his company from a garage, revolutionized the technology industry many times over, got fired from his own business, then came back years later to turn it into the most valuable publicly traded company in the world, all in just over a quarter of a century.

Microsoft and Yahoo: Will They or Won't They? October 06, 2011 Recent corporate shake-ups at Yahoo and anonymous insider reports to various media outlets added fuel to the fiery rumors that Microsoft is eyeing an acquisition of the search engine. Though Microsoft reportedly denied assertions that it was looking into buying Yahoo, the search engine's stock value jumped 10 percent on the rumors that a purchase was imminent.

Google's Outrageous Fortune Draws Slings and Arrows at Senate Hearing September 22, 2011 In a scene reminiscent of Microsoft Cofounder Bill Gates' appearance before a Senate hearing on market dominance years ago, Google Chairman and former CEO Eric Schmidt took the stand Wednesday to persuade U.S. Congressional leaders that the search engine giant is not violating antitrust principles.