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Indians Pray to the 'Visa God'
Indians Pray to the 'Visa God'
Dec 31, 2007 4:40 PM CST

Indians Pray to the 'Visa God'

Priest uses deity to hook believers hoping to work in the West

(Newser) - Every week, 100,000 worshipers converge on a temple in Hyderabad, India, that honors a local incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. But the faithful aren’t praying for good health or fortune: They seek visas to the US and other Western countries, and the deity they’re praying to...

New Web Trend Sparks David vs. Goliath 2.0

Web giants mobilize to stop developers from 'scraping' their content

(Newser) - Some call it “scraping,” others call it “importing.” Either way, it’s a controversial process pitting independent software developers against the titans of the cyber world: Techies compile, or scrape, loads of data from search engines and social networking sites and pool the data on their...

Cheating Is No Longer Child's Play
Cheating Is
No Longer
Child's Play
Dec 26, 2007 8:24 PM CST

Cheating Is No Longer Child's Play

Jobseekers flock to web for answers to professional exams

(Newser) - Crib sheets have gone high-tech, the Boston Globe reports, as legions of job seekers from would-be medical technicians to school bus drivers resort to the Web for a leg-up in passing professional qualifying exams. The result is a booming black market for “braindumps,” or exam answers. Some are...

FTC Okays Google&rsquo;s DoubleClick Buy
FTC Okays Google’s DoubleClick Buy
Dec 20, 2007 10:11 AM CST

FTC Okays Google’s DoubleClick Buy

Deal to go forward despite months of antitrust and privacy opposition

(Newser) - The FTC voted 4-1 to approve Google’s purchase of DoubleClick, despite months of lobbying against the deal on privacy and antitrust grounds. The commissioners concluded that the deal "is unlikely to substantially lessen competition,” PC World reports. The $3.1-billion deal has been fought tooth and nail...

Microsoft, Viacom Ally to Check Google

Partnership aims to counter search giant's ad growth

(Newser) - Microsoft and Viacom joined forces to counter Google's growth in the ad market yesterday, with a 5-year, $500-million partnership. Microsoft gets audio and video content from Viacom, and is a preferred partner in online gaming. Viacom will switch its ad placement from DoubleClick, which Google is about to buy, to...

Big Sites Fold on Net Gambling
Big Sites Fold on Net Gambling
Dec 20, 2007 1:39 AM CST

Big Sites Fold on Net Gambling

DOJ has winning hand in legal battle with Microsoft, Google, Yahoo!

(Newser) - Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo have agreed to cough up $31.5 million to settle Justice Department charges they promoted Internet gambling by accepting advertising from gambling sites for the past 10 years, Reuters reports. The high-tech giants will pay some of that amount in fines, and will create PSAs telling...

Microsoft Faces New Suit on Competition

Small Norwegian company says industry giant stifles rivals

(Newser) - An independent Norwegian software company is taking on Microsoft in an antitrust complaint filed today with the European Commission. Opera charges the industry behemoth with monopolizing the market by packaging Windows with the Internet Explorer browser, Reuters reports. The moves comes three months after Microsoft had to pay a huge...

Supercomputing Technology Landing in Your Lap(top)

Hardware getting smaller as software tries to catch up

(Newser) - Leaps forward in chip design are bringing supercomputing technology to personal computers and corporate data centers, Business Week writes. Hardware makers are coming up with more ways to cram colossal amounts of computing power into small spaces, but software is lagging a bit behind. Microsoft is building a brain trust...

Ask.com Addresses Privacy Worries
Ask.com Addresses Privacy Worries
Dec 11, 2007 11:34 AM CST

Ask.com Addresses Privacy Worries

No. 5 search engine says it will erase info within hours

(Newser) - Aiming to establish itself as an innovator, Ask.com is allowing users to have their search requests deleted within hours, the AP reports. The fifth-most-popular search engine with just 3% market share, Ask.com is taking a huge leap toward being the web’s least intrusive search option. "We...

Microsoft Launches Cell Phone Ad Sales

Graphic or text banners can be shown on MSN Mobile portal

(Newser) - Microsoft launched cell phone advertising in the US Monday, with banner ads displayed on MSN Mobile, a portal accessible from any mobile phone. The ads will be displayed as graphics or text, depending on the user's phone, reports AP. Competitors Yahoo, Google, and numerous smaller companies already sell mobile advertising,...

Sex Talk Sinks Microsoft Santa Software

User claims raunchy elf crossed the line with underage girls

(Newser) - Microsoft got an early peek at Santa’s naughty list and found that it contained Old Saint Nick himself. The company pulled the plug on its automated Santa instant messaging program after a user claimed the elf brought up oral sex in a chat with his underage nieces when they...

Good News Rallies Markets
Good News Rallies Markets
MARKETS
Dec 5, 2007 3:32 PM CST

Good News Rallies Markets

Sunny economic stats and hope for a rate cut give stocks a boost

(Newser) - Stocks took off today in response to cheerful economic data and rising hopes for a Dec. 11 rate cut from the Fed. Government reports showed an increase in productivity and an unexpected jump in hiring, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Dow was up 196.23 to 13,444.96,...

News Outlets Want More Control Over Search Engines

Voluntary rules update has no enemies yet

(Newser) - News outlets with online presences are looking to add controls over how search engines index and display their material, asserting an outdated status quo doesn’t allow them to set enough terms on how their sites get crawled. A new set of guidelines proposed today, called ACAP, would allow sites...

The Shins Are In Demand—and Competing Ads

Microsoft, Apple both hawk products with hipster band

(Newser) - You might not want it, but competing music-player advertisers are betting The Shins will change your mind, reports GigaOm blogger Chris Albrecht. The alt-rock band is currently featured in ads peddling both Apple's iPhone and Microsoft's Zune, leading the blogger to wonder which product the band actually uses.

Small Businesses Targeted for Software Violations

Industry group reaps big settlements from little firms

(Newser) - A group representing major software companies in copyright enforcement actions has been targeting small businesses for violating software licenses, reports the AP. Almost 90% of the Business Software Alliance's $13 million in settlements with North American companies last year came from small companies. Some owners say they were punished for...

Windows XP Update Adds Speed
Windows XP Update Adds Speed
Nov 26, 2007 3:04 PM CST

Windows XP Update Adds Speed

Testing company says it's 10% faster than SP2

(Newser) - Windows XP Service Pack 3, due out next year, runs Microsoft Office 10% faster than XP SP2, said a performance testing software developer. "Since SP3 was supposed to be mostly a bug-fix ... the unexpected speed boost comes as a nice bonus," said the company's technology chief, who called...

Ambition Fails for One Laptop Per Child

Visionary project lowering expectations as for-profit competitors muscle in

(Newser) - One Laptop Per Child started with a monstrously ambitious goal – build laptops for $100 each, sell them by the millions to the developing world. But since then, cost overruns and attacks from for-profit competitors have ravaged demand, the Wall Street Journal reports. A mere 300,000 are being produced...

Shoppers Swoon for Zunes
Shoppers Swoon for Zunes
Nov 23, 2007 11:04 PM CST

Shoppers Swoon for Zunes

Thanksgiving shoppers on the hunt for 'iPod killers'

(Newser) - Microsoft's new Zune digital music players have been flying off the shelves, reports PC World. But big retailers have been running out, frustrating hordes of Thanksgiving shoppers attracted by big discounts and plenty of hype. Microsoft,  which seems to have seriously misjudged demand for the best-selling model, the Zune...

Price War Moves High Def DVD Players
Price War Moves High Def DVD Players
Nov 23, 2007 10:45 AM CST

Price War Moves High Def DVD Players

Competing HD-DVD and Blu-Ray makers drop prices under $200

(Newser) - Sales of high-definition DVD players have been languishing because customers were unwilling to choose one of the two competing formats—Blu-ray or HD DVD. But this holiday season may change that, with retailers dropping prices from upward of $400 to under $200, reports the Wall Street Journal. And Wal-Mart fueld...

Google Keeps Growing, Stock Keeps Rising

Predictions of $900 stock price as engine's market share grows

(Newser) - Google is already the US most popular search engine, but new data indicate it enjoyed a substantial jump in traffic this past month. Reuters reports that the search giant accounted for 58.5% of the American market. Google is trailed by Yahoo, Microsoft, IAC (the owners of Ask.com), and...

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