Internet & Media- Page 1250

Google's flub: Do we have a Web monoculture too?

This was originally posted at ZDNet's Between the Lines.

Google tagged the Web as malware on Saturday and was rendered useless for about an hour. The search giant blamed the incident on human error.

Was the ruckus over Google's screw-up overblown? Possibly. But to many folks, Google is the window to the Internet. If folks can't google something, they are simply lost. That fact alone probably qualifies Google as a Web monoculture, although it may be a touch premature to make a definitive call. However, Google touches everything, and frankly that's a bit worrisome.

In security … Read more

Facebook's face time at Davos

Story updated with Facebook response--see below.

Facebook seems to have turned some heads at the high-profile World Economic Forum with its real-time feedback and polling set-ups.

CNN reported from the Davos, Switzerland, gathering of government and business leaders that Facebook, along with YouTube and MySpace, brought social networking to new prominence in such elite company, from which it can often seem a generation gap away.

Facebook's Randi Zuckerberg was especially enthusiastic about the response, according to CNN.

"When you look at the audience you can really see this eureka moment in their eyes when they see 2,500 … Read more

Former Microsoft exec returning after Yahoo stint

Update at 5:40 p.m.: Microsoft has confirmed his return.

A prodigal son is returning to Microsoft.

Scott Moore, who left Microsoft four years ago for Yahoo, is returning to Redmond as U.S. executive producer to lead MSN's content and programming strategy, AllThings D reported Friday.

Microsoft confirmed his re-entry in an e-mail Saturday.

Moore, who had been heading Yahoo's media operations, left that job in November. At the time, Yahoo said that Moore was leaving to "pursue other opportunities." During his time-off, AllThingsD reported, Moore worked on a start-up idea and went on … Read more

Yahoo's Bartz has a big brass ring

It was a rather blase day for Yahoo's closing stock price Friday. It didn't shoot to the moon on the latest Microsoft takeover rumor, nor crater to the Earth's core on fears that the software giant is never coming back in some shape or form.

But, nonetheless, Yahoo's newly minted CEO, Carol Bartz, was likely taking notice. Her potential fortune is tied to Friday's closing stock price.

Bartz, under her compensation package, is eligible to reap the rewards of 5 million stock options, which carry an exercise price based on Friday's close of $11.… Read more

Report: Netflix, Wal-Mart sued for allegedly colluding

Netflix, the Web's No. 1 video rental service, and Wal-Mart are being accused in a class-action lawsuit of unfairly setting prices for their rental services.

According to the Web site of Video Business, the suit was filed earlier this week in U.S. District Court, Western District of Arkansas. The lead plaintiff, Marci Badgerow, alleges that Wal-Mart agreed in 2005 to exit the online rental business in exchange for Netflix's termination of DVD sales, according to Video Business.

The plaintiffs argue that the agreement promotes unfair trade and is illegal. They assert that the pact harmed customers because … Read more

Microhoo: What might have been

A year ago Sunday, on February 1, 2008, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer told the world his company wanted to buy Yahoo.

Despite months of discussions, the deal never materialized, distressing many Yahoo shareholders and hastening Yahoo's replacement of CEO Jerry Yang with Carol Bartz. But what if Yang had gotten up on the other side of the bed one day a year ago and led his company to accept the offer?

It's impossible to know what would have happened, of course. But an exercise in speculation can be illuminating, as Philip K. Dick showed with The Man In The High Castle, … Read more

Steve Jobs a music visionary? Judge for yourself

Steve Jobs is a Bob Dylan fan because the folk singer is, in the words of Apple's CEO, a "clear thinker."

Jobs' own lucid and careful contemplation of the music industry is apparent in a 2003 interview he gave to Rolling Stone magazine's Jeff Goodell. My colleague Tom Krazit pointed me to the story after stumbling on to it recently. We were bowled over by the preciseness of Jobs' assessment of what the future held for digital rights management, music subscription services, the four largest recording companies, and Apple. The interview in retrospect is a fascinating … Read more

iTunes Plus lets users upgrade individual songs

File this under: now you tell me.

On Wednesday, I paid $30 to upgrade some of my iTunes music. That's the only way iTunes Plus allowed me to do it: swap out all the songs in my library eligible for upgrade or forget about getting any of them at the higher bitrate.

But on Thursday I read at Macworld.com that iTunes is now enabling users to upgrade on a per-song basis. What are the odds?

If I would have just waited a few hours, I wouldn't have had to pay that 30 cents for "The Shock … Read more

Amazon's revenue jumps, beats Street forecast

Amazon.com beat Wall Street's fourth-quarter revenue and earnings expectations, as the e-commerce giant posted strong holiday sales amid a weak economy.

Amazon's revenues jumped 18 percent to $6.7 billion for the quarter compared with the same period a year earlier. Wall Street had been expecting Amazon to generate sales of $6.4 billion for the quarter, according to Thomson Reuters.

The company reported a 9 percent increase in net income to $225 million for the quarter, or 52 cents a share. Wall Street was expecting a net profit of 50 cents a share, excluding stock options … Read more

Tech layoffs up nearly 75 percent in 2008

Correction, 12:50 p.m. PST: This story initially mischaracterized a statement made by John Challenger regarding the severity of recent tech-related job cuts. He does not expect them to be as severe as those during the dot-com bust. Also the percentage figures cited within the various sectors reflect the increase in layoffs last year compared with 2007, and not the percentage of jobs cut.

Job cuts in the tech sector increased 74.2 percent in 2008 compared with the previous year, as the industry was battered by an unrelenting wave of layoffs, according to a report released Thursday.

Last … Read more