Google Calls on Gmail Users to Report Spam

9 March 2007

Google Calls on Gmail Users to Report SpamInformationWeek, NY – Mar 8, 2007

The SEC on Thursday suspended stock trading for 35 companies touted in alleged spam scams. Applauding the move, Google is urging its users to strike their own blow against spammers.
In a blog post today, Google anti-spam engineer Brad Taylor calls upon Gmail users to use the service's "Report Spam" button "early


SEC shuts down trading for 35 companies due to spamComputerworld - Mar 8, 2007

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has suspended trading for 35 companies that allegedly benefited from spam e-mail campaigns to hype their stocks.


Yahoo tests social network component for AnswersComputerworld, MA – March 8, 2007

March 08, 2007 (IDG News Service) -- Yahoo Inc. has started testing a social-network component for Yahoo Answers, a search engine in which people post questions and answers that has become a highly popular service for the Sunnyvale, Calif., company.

On Thursday, Yahoo Answers Network debuted as a beta service designed to let the 90 million users of this question-and-answer search engine create "personal networks" with each other. They can also invite acquaintances who don't use Yahoo Answers to join their network


Yahoo Tests Social Network Component for AnswersPC World – March 8, 2007

Yahoo is testing a social-network component for Yahoo Answers, a search engine in which people post questions and answers that has become a highly popular service for the Sunnyvale, California, company.


Vonage to pay $58 million in Verizon patent caseZDNet – March 8, 2007

Internet phone provider Vonage has been ordered to pay $58 million to Verizon Communications for infringing on three of the company's patents.

Vonage, which provides a service that turns broadband connections into phone lines, was found by a Virginia jury to have infringed patents that cover the technology used to connect these voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) calls to the regular phone network, as well as some features for implementing call-waiting and voice-mail services.

Vonage Ordered to Pay Verizon $58 Million
Forbes, NY – March 8, 2007

Internet phone company Vonage must pay Verizon Communications (nyse: VZ - news - people) $58 million for infringing on three patents that enable the upstart's low-cost telephone service, a jury ruled Thursday.


MessageLabs Service Monitors Email
InformationWeek, NY - March 8, 2007

Two software services help managers monitor and control what confidential, malicious, or inappropriate information and images go in or out of company e-mail.

MessageLabs launched a version update today for software that helps managers control what information flows in and out of company e-mail.

The New York-based messaging security company released V3.0 of its E-mail Content Control and V2.0 of its Email Image Control services

Yahoo to run on millions of Windows Mobile phones

08 March 2007
Yahoo to run on millions of Windows Mobile phonesZDNet – March 7, 2007
Yahoo has added mobile phones running Microsoft's Windows Mobile software to a growing list of handsets from device makers that feature its services on their phone screens.
Marking progress in its drive to make Web services widely available not just only computers but phones, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company said the Windows Mobile push will expand its base of mobile Internet users by millions.
HTC and Yahoo! Declare Strategic Mobile PartnershipTMCnet - 2 hours ago

High Tech Computer (HTC), a provider of Microsoft (News - Alert) Windows Mobile-based smart devices, and Yahoo! have entered into a new strategic global partnership to preload and distribute Yahoo!'s mobile services on millions of HTC devices.

Public beta due soon for new Microsoft VOIP serverInfoWorld, CA - 13 hours ago

Microsoft will release a public beta of new VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) server software by the end of this month.The software smoothly integrates with legacy phone networks and its Office application suite, the company said.


Microsoft Shifts Into VoIP MarketTMC Net, CT - 2 hours ago

In a move further signaling that VoIP is now serious business, Microsoft (News - Alert) announced at the VoiceCon Spring 2007 conference it would enter the booming VoIP market, and release a public beta of its VoIP server software by the end of March.

Spam victim wins court caseIT Week, UK - 2 hours ago

A man has won damages of £750 from an internet company after he was sent a single unsolicited email.

Gordon Dick, an electronic marketing specialist, launched a civil case against Transcom after it sent him an unwanted email on an address that was known only to one company. His case is the first time a British court has set a level of compensation for spam.



Scottish man gets revenge on spammersUSA Today – March 7, 2007

LONDON — Most people just grumble and hit delete, but when Gordon Dick received a spam message advertising Internet services, he fought back.
The 30-year-old Web marketing specialist from Edinburgh sued the sender, Transcom Internet Services Ltd., in small-claims court. The court ordered the company to pay $1,445 in damages and $1,190 in court costs.

Yahoo gets morale boost from new online ad formulaUSA Today - Mar 6, 2007

Yahoo Inc.'s month-old upgrade to its advertising formula for making money from online search requests so far has done more to lift the Internet powerhouse's morale than its finances, the company's two top executives said Tuesday.

Microsoft chastises Google on copyrights

07 March 2007

Microsoft chastises Google on copyrightsZDNet - 3 hours ago

Google's narrow view of the protections that copyright law offers creators has famously made enemies of book publishers, news organizations and professional photographers over the last few years.

Now Microsoft, which is increasingly competing with Google in business software and other areas, is piling on its rival as well

Microsoft Attorney Accuses Google of Copyright ViolationsInformationWeek, NY - 4 hours ago

In prepared remarks delivered today at Association of American Publishers annual meeting in New York, Thomas Rubin, associate general counsel for copyright, trademark, and trade secrets at Microsoft, called Google's business model "troubling" and accused Google of violating copyright law.

The Association of American Publishers no doubt welcomed Rubin's remarks, given that the organization sued Google in October 2005 for seeking, as AAP president Patricia Schroeder put it at the time, "to make millions of dollars by freeloading on the talent and property of authors and publishers" through its Book Search project.

My Yahoo upgrade coming soonComputerworld, MA - March 06, 2007

Yahoo Inc.'s My Yahoo service, which lets users aggregate content and services on a single Web page, will soon get a significant upgrade, the company's CEO said Tuesday.
The enhancement to My Yahoo is part of the company's continued emphasis on giving users tools to personalize their Internet experience, said CEO Terry Semel at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference in San Francisco, which was webcast.
Use Skype in your business without risking your PCsiTWire, Australia – March 6, 2007

IW Distribution is selling in Australia and New Zealand a Skype-certified gateway that enables Skype to be used for incoming and outgoing calls over multiple lines via a standard PBX on analogue telephones.


IW Distribution releases a new generation of PBX-to-Skype GatewaysComputerworld, - March 6, 2007

IW Distribution announces the availability in Australia and NZ of new VoSKY Exchange 9040 and 9080 Skype PBX gateways for small and mid-sized businesses

IW Distribution announced the launch of two new PBX-Skype gateway products, the VoSKY Exchange 9040/9080, capable of adding 4 or 8 Skype lines to the PBX with no change in phone or additional equipment

Microsoft Office finds its voiceZDNet – March 07, 2007

After months of anticipation, corporate customers will soon get their hands on a beta version of Microsoft's voice over IP software, an event that marks an important step in the evolution of corporate communications.

Microsoft is staging the long-awaited coming-out party for its IP telephony software with an announcement that the public beta release of Office Communications Server 2007, Microsoft's voice over IP and unified communications server, and Office Communicator 2007, Microsoft's unified communications client, will be available to testers later this month.

MS' Unified Communications Server and Client to Get Public BetaseWeek, MA – March 7, 07

Microsoft will distribute the public beta of its voice over IP and unified communications server, Office Communications Server 2007, and its unified communications client, Office Communicator 2007, to millions of testers later this month.

Microsoft is also, for the first time, making the interoperability specifications for both products available to partners.

Novell delivers Open XML translator for OpenOffice

06 March 2007

Novell delivers Open XML translator for OpenOfficeComputerworld, MA – Mar 5, 2007

Novell Inc. posted an Open XML translator for the OpenOffice.org productivity suite today, making good on a December 2006 promise to add Microsoft Office 2007 file format capability to the open-source application bundle.

The translator -- which works with both the Linux and Windows versions of OpenOffice.org -- lets users open and save Word 2007's native documents within the open-source suite's word processor application.

Novell makes ODF-OOXML translator availableZDNet – Mar 5, 2007

Novell has released for download an Open XML translator that allows users to open and save Microsoft Office Open XML-formatted word-processing documents in OpenOffice.

Novell officials said late last year that they planned to create a version of OpenOffice that would include Office Open XML (OOXML) file-format compatibility.

Cisco buys another social-networking firmInfoWorld, CA – Mar 5, 2007
Cisco Systems is continuing to buy its way into social networking, acquiring some assets of the company that operates Tribe.net while letting the site remain independent.
Cisco announced Monday it has bought selected assets of Utah Street Networks, a seven-person San Francisco company founded in 2003. It did not acquire Tribe.net, a social-networking site that has been overshadowed by the success of big names such as Friendster, Facebook, and News Corp.'s MySpace. Cisco did not reveal the terms of the deal, which has already been completed, in a statement Monday.

Cisco Buys 'Select' Utah Street AssetsForbes, NY – Mar 5, 2007
Cisco Systems Inc., the world's biggest networking equipment company, said Monday it bought "select assets" of Utah Street Networks Inc., the operator of the social networking site Tribe.net.

Panasonic Releases the Wi-Fi Phone for SkypeTMCnet – Mar 5, 2007
Panasonic has announced the availability of the Panasonic Wi-Fi phone for use with Skype (News - Alert). The KX-WP1050 is an easy to install and use Wi-Fi Panasonic product and is one in a series of planned products that are Skype Certified.

Microsoft's OneCare Finishes Last in Antivirus TestsPC Magazine – Mar 5, 2007
A well-regarded antivirus testing laboratory has released its latest quarterly results, and placed Microsoft's OneCare antivirus solution squarely at the bottom of the list
In each of three categories – viruses, macros, worms and scripts; backdoors, trojans, and other malware; and a third category, combining the results of the first two – OneCare received the worst score out of seventeen products tested, according to AV-Comparatives.org, a group of IT graduate students who have published formal analyses of antivirus tools since Feb. 2004. The effort is led by Andreas Clementi, the project tester and a graduate student at the University of Innsbruck.

Last place: Don't use Microsoft OneCare for antivirusiTWire, Australia - Mar 5, 2007
Microsoft says they’ve put security first in Vista and have even brought their own Internet Security and antivirus software to market. So why then in new tests by AV Comparatives has Microsoft come last?
When Microsoft launched their anti-virus and Internet Security product OneCare, rival companies were concerned that Microsoft was trying to muscle in on their market. But if the results of both a new test by research firm AV Comparatives and previous tests that ranked Windows Defender relatively lowly are anything to go by, rival security companies such as Symantec, McAfee, Trend, F-Secure, ZoneAlarm, Kaspersky and others have nothing to worry about – or at least, not yet.

Google warns of Microsoft, Yahoo competition

05 March 2007

Google warns of Microsoft, Yahoo competitionZDNet - 15 hours ago
Google is warning shareholders of the “formidable competition” it faces from both Microsoft and Yahoo.
Google considers Microsoft and Yahoo to be its primary competitors, acknowledging in particular that their Internet portals may have a greater ability to attract and retain users than Google does.
Analysts: Outlook grim for Microsoft online businessInfoWorld, CA - Mar 2, 2007

Despite its CEO's claims that Microsoft eventually will trump Google to be number one in online search revenue, the company's online business is "massively underperforming" against the competition, according to a leading financial analyst.

On a conference call Friday, Heather Bellini, an analyst with UBS Investment Research, said Microsoft is actually losing ground against competitors Google and Yahoo in online search revenue and the frequency of search queries that leverage its Windows Live Search engine.

FCC: Local telephone carriers must connect to VOIPInfoWorld, CA - Mar 2, 2007

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has ruled that incumbent local exchange carriers must connect to VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) services, overruling two state public service commission opinions.

The FCC on Thursday granted a petition from Time Warner Cable Inc., which had complained that the South Carolina and Nebraska public service commissions had allowed rural local exchange carriers to refuse access to wholesale telecom vendors connecting to Time Warner's VoIP service.


FCC Orders 'You Will Connect VoIP'VoIP - 05 March 2007

In a ruling that overturns two state directives, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has ruled that rural carriers must connect VoIP services.
Following a petition submitted by Time Warner Cable in response to rulings in South Carolina and Nebraska that local exchange carriers could refuse to allow access to their networks on the basis that VoIP was not a "telecommunications service". The petition was submitted almost a year ago.
IBM teams up with Google over gadgetsUSA Today - Mar 3, 2007

IBM and Google are teaming up to bring mini applications called gadgets from the consumer Web to corporate networks.
The two tech giants on Wednesday announced a partnership that will allow business users to access Google gadgets from IBM's WebSphere Portal software.


IBM and Google collaborate on mash-upsComputerworld – Mar 5, 2007

IBM's WebSphere Portal users are about to find a brand new bag of tricks on their doorstep. Next month, the WebSphere Portal catalog will include Google Gadgets, which means portal page designers and portal dwellers will have access to utilities that provide links to research databases, package delivery tracking tools, Google Maps utilities, traffic information, and applications such as Google Docs & Spreadsheets.


Google's 2nd attempt to buy Chinese Gmail domain name gets no responseEarthtimes.org - Mar 2, 2007

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA: Internet business giant Google is finding the Chinese namesake of its Gmail service playing hard-to-get. According to one report, the US company approached Beijing-based ISM Internet Technology Development Co. Ltd., the firm behind the Chinese email service, with an offer to acquire the Gmail.cn domain name. But ISM offered no comment saying it did not understand the situation clearly.

Does it matter if Google can't have Gmail.cn?Cnet Asia, CA - Mar 3, 2007

A few days ago Reuters published an article about Google's attempts to buy the Gmail.cn domain from a Chinese company. It seems Google has been frustrated in its attempts to get its hands on the domain, which was first registered back in 2003, before Google announced Gmail, by a Chinese domain registrar called ISM Technologies. Naturally enough, ISM runs a Webmail service on the domain. It even uses a multicolored logo that, while not a direct ripoff of the Gmail logo, is certainly suggestive. But this isn't a new story.