see also: News Search Engines.

20080403
• Medical - Database - Abortion - Science - Literature - Family - Education - Government - Search Engine - Funding - Maryland - US - International - Politics - "U.S. Funded Health Search Engine Blocks 'Abortion'." ... "A U.S. [United States] government-funded medical information site that bills itself as the world's largest database on reproductive health has quietly begun to block searches on the word "abortion," concealing nearly 25,000 search results." ... "Called Popline, the search site is run by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Maryland. It's funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, the federal office in charge of providing foreign aid, including health care funding, to developing nations." ... "The massive database indexes a broad range of reproductive health literature, including titles like "Previous abortion and the risk of low birth weight and preterm births," and "Abortion in the United States: Incidence and access to services, 2005."" ... "But on Thursday, a search on "abortion" was producing only the message "No records found by latest query."" ... "Stephen Goldstein, a spokesman for Johns Hopkins, said he wasn't aware of the censorship, and couldn't immediately comment. " -By Sarah Lai Stirland -Wired 

  ---

20080310
• Secretive - Government - Domestic Spying - American - Peoples - Communications - Travel - Finances - Electronic - EMails - Internet - Searches - Databases - Civil-Liberties - Law - Terrorism - Politics - Investigation - International - Military - Intelligence - TIA - "NSA's Domestic Spying Grows As Agency Sweeps Up Data." ... "Five years ago, Congress killed an experimental Pentagon antiterrorism program meant to vacuum up electronic data about people in the U.S. to search for suspicious patterns [the TIA program: the Total Information Awareness program]. Opponents called it too broad an intrusion on Americans' privacy, even after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks." ... "But the data-sifting effort didn't disappear. The National Security Agency, once confined to foreign surveillance, has been building essentially the same system." ... "The central role the NSA has come to occupy in domestic intelligence gathering has never been publicly disclosed. But an inquiry reveals that its efforts have evolved to reach more broadly into data about people's communications, travel and finances in the U.S. than the domestic surveillance programs brought to light since the 2001 terrorist attacks." ... "Congress now is hotly debating domestic spying powers under the main law governing U.S. surveillance aimed at foreign threats. An expansion of those powers expired last month and awaits renewal, which could be voted on in the House of Representatives this week. The biggest point of contention over the law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, is whether telecommunications and other companies should be made immune from liability for assisting government surveillance." ... "Largely missing from the public discussion is the role of the highly secretive NSA in analyzing that data, collected through little-known arrangements that can blur the lines between domestic and foreign intelligence gathering." ... "According to current and former intelligence officials, the spy agency now monitors huge volumes of records of domestic emails and Internet searches as well as bank transfers, credit-card transactions, travel and telephone records. The NSA receives this so-called "transactional" data from other agencies or private companies, and its sophisticated software programs analyze the various transactions for suspicious patterns. Then they spit out leads to be explored by counterterrorism programs across the U.S. government, such as the NSA's own Terrorist Surveillance Program, formed to intercept phone calls and emails between the U.S. and overseas without a judge's approval when a link to al Qaeda is suspected." ... "The NSA's enterprise involves a cluster of powerful intelligence-gathering programs, all of which sparked civil-liberties complaints when they came to light. They include a Federal Bureau of Investigation program to track telecommunications data once known as Carnivore, now called the Digital Collection System, and a U.S. arrangement with the world's main international banking clearinghouse to track money movements." ... "The effort also ties into data from an ad-hoc collection of so-called "black programs" whose existence is undisclosed, the current and former officials say." ... "Two current officials also said the NSA's current combination of programs now largely mirrors the former TIA [Total Information Awareness] project. But the NSA offers less privacy protection." -By Siobhan Gorman -WSJ.com 

  ---

20080201
• Microsoft - Computer - Search Engine - Internet - US - European Union - "Microsoft wants to purchase Yahoo: Microsoft has offered to buy the search engine company Yahoo for $44.6bn (£22.4bn) in cash and shares." ... "The offer, contained in a letter to Yahoo's board, is 62% above Yahoo's closing share price on Thursday." ... "Yahoo cut its revenue forecasts earlier this week and said it would have to spend an additional $300m this year trying to revive the company." ... "It has been struggling in recent years to compete with Google, which has also been a competitor to Microsoft." ... "If Yahoo accepted the offer, competition authorities both in the US and the European Union would be likely to investigate the tie-up." ... "Yahoo chief executive, Jerry Yang, announced on Tuesday that he intended to lay off 1,000 staff as part of a restructuring plan." ... "Yahoo shares have fallen 46% since reaching a year-high of $34.08 in October. On Friday they closed almost 48% higher." -BBC/News 

  ---

20070814
• Consumer - Internet - Business - "Ask.com on the Upswing." ... "The [American Consumer Satisfaction Index] jump is a credit to Ask’s June makeover, arguably the most far reaching effort by a major search engine to depart from the “ten blue links,” the traditional way of displaying search results. Since then, Ask has been displaying results in three panes that include traditional results, as well as links to videos, blogs and other types of content, and ways for searchers to narrow or expand their queries." ... "Indeed, no one is about to overtake Google, even though its own satisfaction index slipped three points in the past year. Of every 100 Internet search queries in the United States, roughly 50 take place on Google, another 25 on Yahoo, 13 on Microsoft, 5 on Ask.com, 4 on AOL and the rest on an assortment of smaller Web services, according to comScore." -By Miguel Helft -NYTimes 

  ---

20070813
• Wireless - Communications - Market - Emergency - Radio -  -  - Technology - "FCC Rules Allow One Bidder To Buy More Than Half of Spectrum." ... "A single company could bid for more than half the lucrative spectrum to be auctioned off by the Federal Communications Commission after the final rules for the sale failed to include a provision prohibiting this from occurring." ... "There had been pressure on FCC policymakers to include such a rule to ensure that an incumbent wireless carrier such as Verizon Wireless or AT&T Inc. wouldn't be able to take the lion's share of the spectrum being sold." ... "Potential new entrants to the market, such as Google Inc., as well as a handful of public interest groups had been pushing the FCC to include the rule." ... "Two sections make up 32 megahertz of the 62 megahertz of prized airwaves being sold off. They include one 22-megahertz swath with so-called open-access requirements attached -- which is actually six separate pieces that can be added together, and another 10-megahertz chunk that will be used to provide wireless broadband service to the emergency services community, with any spare capacity able to be used for commercial purposes." ... "The remaining 30 megahertz has been broken up into several hundred licenses." -By Corey Boles -WSJ.com 

  ---

  
• Microsoft - Computer - Search Engines - Online - Advertising - Seattle - Washington - "Microsoft Wraps Up $6B aQuantive Buy." ... "Microsoft took a major -- and expensive -- step toward solidifying its place in the online advertising space with its $6 billion acquisition of aQuantive." ... "Completing its largest acquisition ever, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) closed its US$6 billion purchase of digital advertising player aQuantive, then created a new business unit to encompass aQuantive and its three companies: Avenue A | Razorfish (Nasdaq: RAZF), Atlas Solutions and DRIVE Performance Solutions." ... "Formed in 1997 and based in Seattle [Washington], aQuantive is a veteran and big player in the online advertising world. However, the price paid by Microsoft is 85 percent more per share than aQuantive's valuation last Friday, before the deal was finalized." ... "Some observers believe Microsoft was becoming antsy about getting a foothold in the digital advertising industry, since [search engines] Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), AOL and Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) have already bought, or are buying, online ad entities. Microsoft said the acquisition shows it is serious about its "increased focus on online advertising market opportunities."" ... "The size of the deal raised eyebrows of many observers, as the price was triple the amount Microsoft ever paid for an acquisition and double what Google is willing to spend on DoubleClick (Nasdaq: DCLK). It's also far more than the $680 million paid by Yahoo for Right Media, an Internet ad exchange and the $435 million spent by AOL on Advertising.com in 2004." -ECommerceTimes.com 

  ---

20060803
• DCI - Marketing - Psychology - Oil - Corporation - Politics - Opinion - Internet - Video - California - Entertainment - Media - Search Engine - Computer - Communications - EMail - Environmental - Science - Global - Climate - Al Gore - "Where did that video spoofing Gore's film come from?" ... "Everyone knows Al Gore stars in the global warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth." But who created "Al Gore's Penguin Army," a two-minute video now playing on YouTube.com?" ... "Like other videos on the popular YouTube site, it has a home-made, humorous quality. The video's maker is listed as "Toutsmith," a 29-year-old who identifies himself as being from Beverly Hills [California] in an Internet profile." ... "In an email exchange with The Wall Street Journal, Toutsmith didn't answer when asked who he was or why he made the video, which has just over 59,000 views on YouTube. However, computer routing information contained in an email sent from Toutsmith's Yahoo account indicate it didn't come from an amateur working out of his basement." ... "Instead, the email originated from a computer registered to DCI Group, a Washington, D.C., public relations and lobbying firm whose clients include oil company Exxon Mobil Corp [Corporation]." ... "The anti-Gore video represents a less well-known side of YouTube. As its popularity has exploded, the public video-sharing site has drawn marketers looking to build buzz for new music releases and summer blockbusters. Now, it's being tapped by political operatives, public relations experts and ad agencies to sway opinions." ... "DCI is no stranger to the debate over global warming. Partly through Tech Central Station, an opinion Web site it operates, DCI has sought to raise doubts about the science of global warming and about Mr. Gore's film, placing skeptical scientists on talk-radio shows and paying them to write editorials." ... "Internet videos could prove particularly potent, because they may influence watchers in ways they don't realize. Nancy Snow, a communications professor at California State University, Fullerton, viewed the penguin video and calls it a lesson in "Propaganda 101." It contains no factual information, but presents a highly negative image of the former vice president, she says. The purpose of such images is to harden the views of those who already view Mr. Gore negatively, Dr. Snow says." ... "Traffic to the penguin video, first posted on YouTube.com in May, got a boost from prominently placed sponsored links that appeared on the Google search engine when users typed in "Al Gore" or "Global Warming." The ads, which didn't indicate who had paid for them, were removed shortly after The Wall Street Journal contacted DCI Group on Tuesday." -By Antonio Regalado and Dionne Searcey with contributions by Jeffrey Ball -WSJ.com via -Post-Gazette.com

  ---