Internet & Media

To advance its Street View service this summer, Google is poised to unleash the unstoppable power of human legs.

Traditionally, the average road car finds it problematic to traverse the terrain of the British footpath. But bicycles do not. So this summer, Google will deploy bikes mounted with its 360-degree Street View cameras to map areas of Britain inaccessible by its fleet of Street View cars.

The so-called Google Trike, which the company describes as "a mechanical masterpiece comprising 3 bicycle wheels, a mounted Street View camera and a very athletic cyclist in customized Google apparel," will arrive … Read more

Henry McMaster, the South Carolina attorney general who threatened Craigslist with criminal prosecution last week, must assume Web users and the people of his state don't take the time to read.

Just a few hours after Craigslist announced that it had filed a lawsuit against McMaster for making threats and alleging managers of the site were in some way responsible for prostitution ads that have appeared on the site, McMaster claimed victory.

He suggested that it was he and his threats that prompted Craigslist to implement changes to the site, such as setting up a system to review ads … Read more

This post has been updated. See below for details.

Craigslist said Wednesday it is suing South Carolina's attorney general over the threat of criminal charges against the Web site and its executives.

In the lawsuit filed in federal court, Craigslist says it is "seeking declaratory relief and a restraining order" connected to accusations by Henry McMaster, the state's attorney general, that the classified ad site has not adequately removed "advertisements for prostitution and graphic pornographic material."

In a blog post Wednesday morning, Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster said that the charges are egregious:

Note at 7:50 a.m. PDT: Craigslist said it has filed suit against South Carolina's attorney general over his threats to prosecute the site. Read about it here.

Craigslist's managers have complied with the wishes of most of the state attorneys general who demanded they rid the site of prostitution ads.

The Web's dominant classifieds publication replaced its controversial "erotic" section with a new "adult" category. And where Craigslist once relied on readers to flag dodgy advertisements, the company's employees now review every ad submitted to the adult area before they … Read more

Microsoft has struck a deal to bring Netflix's streaming movie service to Windows Media Center, the companies said Tuesday.

Netflix's more than 12,000 "Watch it now" movies and TV episodes are only available to users of Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate. XP users won't be able to access the service.

Owners of Windows Media Center will also be able to search the entire Netflix library, manage their DVD queues, and "filter searches by titles that are available to watch instantly," Microsoft said in a statement.

Microsoft continues to try to boost … Read more

Correction: This post initially linked to inaccurate April search market figures provided by Nielsen, which have since been corrected. See update below for details.

Microsoft will demonstrate its long-awaited next-generation search technology, code-named Kumo, next week at the D: All Things Digital technology conference, according to reports.

Both The Wall Street Journal and the All Things Digital blog (both owned by News Corp.) are citing unnamed sources saying Kumo will make its official public debut at the conference.

In response to an e-mail seeking confirmation of the reports, a Microsoft spokesperson said the company has nothing new to announce at … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Yahoo is continuing its attempt to redefine Internet search by focusing on intent, not results.

The company held a "Search Chalk Talk" here Tuesday to discuss the state of Yahoo's search efforts, a renewed priority under new CEO Carol Bartz. There were a few tidbits of news--such as the one-year anniversary of Yahoo's SearchMonkey project--but the talk really served as a further reminder that Yahoo's future vision of search revolves around structured data.

Prabhakar Raghavan, head of Yahoo Labs and Yahoo Search Strategy, made approximately 489 references (give or take) to Yahoo's … Read more

Now that Wolfram Alpha is up and running, the next question is whether it can make any money.

Wolfram Research appears to have sold the first ad on the search engine to Lenovo, as noted by Search Engine Land. An ad for the ThinkPad appeared recently next to a Wolfram Alpha search for "pi," the mathematical constant.

It's not clear how advertising works on Wolfram Alpha but it does not appear that Wolfram has duplicated Google's keyword-based search ad approach as yet. The site has said it will accept corporate sponsorship, however. Lenovo's ad was … Read more

Google thinks it will be able to tell which of its employees are going to quit, maybe even before they know.

The company revealed Tuesday that it is using its fabled data-collection and analysis powers for more than just search results. The Wall Street Journal reported that Google has developed an algorithm for assessing the number of employees likely to turn their back on the free lunches and multicolored walls of Google's Mountain View, Calif., campus in hopes of convincing the best of those folks to stay.

A few years ago, Silicon Valley workers were flocking to Google, and … Read more