Belgian newspaper sues Google

Judge HammerBelgian newspaper group Copiepresse ask $77.5 million from Google in damages for use of their work. In 2006 Belgian newspaper group Copiepresse filed a lawsuit against Google for re publishing their articles online. Google and Copiepresse went into negotiations to settle it out side court. Google News is an automated news aggregator. The service covers news articles appearing within the past 30 days on various news websites.

Best tech support

Lenovo Group Limited Lenovo ThinkPad T61 6460 Core 2 Duo T7700 / 2.4 GHz - Centrino Pro (Sold Individually)
A new study by Consumer Reports finds that technical support for most computers is pretty dismal. According to the study Compaq and Hewlett-Packard’s tech support were found to be generally worse. For laptops, Lenovo’s tech support found to be  quite good. Apple rated as the best by consumers. The Consumer Reports’ survey showed Mac’s in-store help is excellent, solving problems 90 percent of the time.

Facebook borrows money

Facebook Facebook’s explosive growth needs more cash. Facebook has borrowed $100 million recently from Calif.-based venture loan firm TriplePoint. The loan will help to buy approximately 50,000 more servers. In January this year Facebook elevated its projected revenue from $300 million to $350 million. In 2007 its revenue was $150 million. Facebook has approximately 70 million registered users.

TorrentSpy ordered to pay $110m

Judge Hammer TorrentSpy, a file sharing site utilized a legitimate file-sharing technology called BitTorrent. It makes it easier to exchange large files over the internet, with individual users sending and sharing bits of files. The site has been ordered to pay $110m in damages to the Motion Picture Association of America for copyright infringement. TorrentSpy parent company Valence Media has filed for bankruptcy.

RIM launches mobile VC fund

BlackBerry Partner FundBlackBerry maker Research In Motion is working with three other companies to launch a $150 million venture capital fund that will invest in companies developing new applications and services for mobile devices. According to RIM the fund won’t be restricted to investing in BlackBerry-specific applications. It will also invest in start-ups as well as relatively mature software developers.

CEOs Battle to Keep Up With the Pace of Change


A new study of chief executives by IBM,reveals that ability to manage change is widening the gap between winners and losers in the global economy. The IBM Global CEO Study, based on face-to-face interviews with 1,130 CEOs from 40 countries across 32 industries, is designed to capture insights on how the challenges CEOs face today will impact the future of business. The study revealed that fundamental shifts in expectations from more demanding customers and the increased purchasing power in emerging markets are driving major changes in the business models of organizations worldwide.

Image ads on Cellular phones by Google

Cell phone Google has announced a technology that provides brand images on mobile phones. The technology will provide some sort of image advertisement that has been scaled to fit on the screen of a mobile phone,based on a user’s query. The service is  available in 13 countries (Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Russia, Spain, the UK, and the United States).

Google spends $72 million a year for free meals

google.png An estimated 9,600 Google employees across multiple offices enjoy free meals 251 days out of the year that Google is open. This equates to $72,288,000 spent per year by Google.This figure is based upon a $30 per day per employee estimate by Aramark Business Dining Services.

Microsoft Withdraws Yahoo bid

google-microsoft-yahoo.png Microsoft announced today that it has withdrawn its proposal to acquire Yahoo! Inc. In a final meeting occurred today at Microsoft headquarters, Yahoo said the lowest price they could accept was $37/share. Microsoft said that the economics demanded by Yahoo! do not make sense for them. Microsoft made a public offer to buy Yahoo on Jan. 31 this year. Both Microsoft and Yahoo have struggled to compete with Google for the billions of online advertising dollars.

Google, most powerful global brand

google.png Market research firm Millward Brown Optimor produced the rankings based on interviews with more than a million consumers worldwide. For the third year in a row Google grabbed the top spot with a $86 billion brand value. General Electric and Microsoft,  came in second and third places respectively. Of the top 100 most powerful brands, 28 of them were technology related, including Hewlett-Packard, Cisco Systems, Oracle, Intel, Dell, and BlackBerry.

YouTube Opens Ad Sales

You Tube YouTube, popular online video sharing site introduced overlay advertising into its video clips. The ad rates charged to advertisers were calculated  on a CPM cost-per-thousand basis. Certain content producers are also free to sell ads on their YouTube channel at market rates.  This way producers of content which reach a more desirable audience can charge more.

Apple Surpasses Walmart

AppleAccording to an NPD MusicWatch Survey, Apple surpasses Walmart to become the number 1 music retailer. Apple’s iTunes Store leads with 19 percent market share, Walmart comes to second with 15 percent,BestBuy and Amazon and in third and fourth places.