[Software News] Microsoft buys Web map company
[Software News] CNBC channels world business news to Yahoo
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - US cable television news channel CNBC is making its business stories available online at Yahoo's Yahoo Finance page under the terms of an agreement announced on Wednesday. NBC Universal-owned CNBC will provide articles and video clips for distribution at financial news websites operated by California-based Internet titan Yahoo, according to the companies. ...
[Software News] EBay says to appeal patent infringement ruling
NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Top online auctioneer eBay Inc said on Wednesday it would appeal a U.S. court ruling in a patent dispute with MercExchange LLC. MercExchange, which holds several patents related to Internet-based auctions and markets, said earlier that a U.S. district court in Norfolk, Virginia, found on Tuesday that eBay had intentionally infringed its patents. EBay said...
[Software News] What's This w00t and Why Is It Word of the Year?
Gamers, rejoice! The quintessential l33t-speak shout -- "w00t!" -- has been named the "Word of the Year" by the Merriam-Webster Online Web site. In the somewhat dry language of the company's press release, "w00t" is listed as an interjection, and defined as "expressing joy (it could be after a triumph, or for no reason at all); similar in use to the word 'yay.'" ...
[Software News] Judge affirms $30M judgment against eBay
SAN FRANCISCO - A federal judge has approved a roughly $30 million judgment against eBay Inc. more than four years after a jury concluded the online auctioneer had infringed on the patent of a small Virginia company. U.S. District Court Judge Jerome Friedman's certification, issued late Tuesday in Virginia, edges Great Falls, Va.-based MercExchange LLC a step closer to cashing in on its long-running...
[Software News] New `Jackass' movie to hit Internet
NEW YORK - The next batch of painful "Jackass" stunts is coming to a computer screen near you. The first two films — spun off from the former MTV series — co-starred Johnny Knoxville and his gang of gross-out pranksters as they performed stunts to the delight of their youthful fans. But for the sequel "Jackass 2.5," the dirty daredevils pull a new stunt: bypassing the movie theater entirel...
[Software News] Penthouse Puts Out $500M for Social Networking Sites
The online adult entertainment grotto just got a little more crowded. Penthouse Media Group, Inc. (PMGI), the parent company for Penthouse magazine and the owner of extensive online properties, announced Wednesday that it is spending $500 million to acquire Various, Inc., the owner of numerous social networking sites, including AdultFriendFinder.com, one of the Web's leading dating sites. The transaction is one of the largest ever for an adult business. ...
[Software News] DNS attack could signal Phishing 2.0
San Francisco - Researchers at Google and the Georgia Institute of Technology are studying a virtually undetectable form of attack that quietly controls where victims go on the Internet. The study, set to be published in February, takes a close look at "open recursive" DNS servers, which are used to tell computers how to find each other on the Internet by translating domain names such...
[Software News] InfoSpace, Yahoo extend search agreement
(Reuters) - InfoSpace Inc said it has extended its multi-year agreement with Yahoo Inc, allowing it to continue to deliver Web search results and text-based advertising listings from Yahoo, to its network of metasearch properties and affiliates. (Reporting by Shikhar Balwani in Bangalore; Editing by Deepak Kannan) ...
[Software News] NBC to provide TV shows for SanDisk service
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Media conglomerate NBC Universal will offer television programming for a Web-based service from SanDisk Corp that lets viewers download shows from the Internet and play them on a TV set-top, the companies said on Tuesday. New shows from NBC's broadcast network as well as its cable channels like USA and Bravo will be available on SanDisk's Fanfare service in Janua...
[Software News] Panel Suggests Ways to Index Government Documents
Government databases are a treasure trove of random data, but locating much of their content via search engines like Google is often a fruitless endeavor because of a failure to link this data to commonly used search engines, experts told a Senate panel Tuesday. Government Web sites like USA.gov, the official U.S Web portal, allow users to search within the site for pertinent information, as do c...
[Software News] Ask.com Gives Privacy Control to Users
On Tuesday, Ask.com launched a new product designed to give consumers more control over the privacy of their online searches, but at least one privacy guru remains skeptical about its effectiveness in a Google-driven search world. Users can enable the new technology, dubbed AskEraser, to completely delete search queries and associated information from Ask.com servers, including IP address, user...
[Software News] Online Tool Calculates Wireless Connection Costs
IPass, a provider of a global remote access network, on Tuesday launched an online tool that helps businesses get a better handle on their wireless connectivity costs. The new tool, called Mobility Expense Calculator, can be used to determine a company's wireless connectivity expenses, such as hidden costs in Wi-Fi retail vouchers, Internet day passes provided by hotels, and cellular subscri...
[Software News] Maroon 5, Fergie are top iTunes sellers
LOS ANGELES - Maroon 5 and Fergie hold the top spots on iTunes' year-end sales roundup. The online music store released its top-selling albums and singles Tuesday, though it declined to release actual sales figures. Maroon 5's sophomore album, "It Won't Be Soon Before Long," was the No. 1 seller on the site, followed by Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black" and Kanye West's "Graduation." Winehouse and Wes...
[Software News] Panelists: Many gov't Web sites hard to navigate
San Francisco - Five years after the U.S. Congress passed legislation to improve electronic access to government information, 2,000 government Web sites contain public information that cannot be accessed through outside search engines, e-government experts said Tuesday. The U.S. government has improved e-government services since 2002, but it still has a lot of work to do, representatives of Google,...
[Software News] In-flight Internet too tempting for some
NEW YORK - Warren Adelman's colleagues know him as "Thumbs": Like many executives, he is adept at checking e-mail on his BlackBerry and does it almost constantly. Unable to do so during flights, Adelman welcomes business trips as "an opportunity to decompress a little bit from the constant flow of e-mail, perhaps catch up on a book." "It's one of the few downtime environments you get in this day and...
[Software News] Norton AntiVirus 11 Ships for Leopard
Leopard has a new weapon in its antimalware arsenal with Symantec's release on Monday of Norton AntiVirus 11 for Mac OS X 10.5. Symantec said the new product offers improved performance and better protection against Internet-connected applications. The new version of the popular security software features signature-based protection against malware that can be installed when the user downloa...
[Software News] Facebook, ID fraud, and the dark side of the Web
San Francisco - In a year that has seen bullying in blogs, pedophiles on MySpace, and an ongoing privacy backlash against Facebook, it was appropriate that this year's Le Web 3 conference started Tuesday with a panel discussion about the "dark side" of Web 2.0. "The Internet is just another form of human expression, so it's subject to human imperfection like any other conduit,...
[Software News] Microsoft's Patch Tuesday Targets Seven Vulnerabilities
Microsoft on Tuesday issued its December security update, addressing seven vulnerabilities. Three of the vulnerabilities are rated critical. They could allow remote code execution if exploited. Four of the vulnerabilities are rated important. December's update follows an unusually light November update, which fixed only two flaws. Microsoft's October patch dealt with seven flaws. The...
[Software News] Spielberg is not leaving DreamWorks: spokesman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Iconic Hollywood director Steven Spielberg is not leaving DreamWorks, his spokesman said on Tuesday, denying a report on the online edition of celebrity magazine Radar. "Radar's radar kind of bounced off an incorrect source," the spokesman said. Spielberg's relationship with DreamWorks' parent, Paramount, a unit of Viacom Inc, has been the subject of in...