Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL)

[kennynah]

sdf:
then bo pian...no voting chance... only choice... denounce the emperor by leaving the kingdom eventually.... else live with the consequences... it's just like dat.

or were u referring to the browser stuff ?

[sesdaqfan]

sdf:
or were u referring to the browser stuff ?

[millionairemind]

Top lawyer Sanford Litvack recruited as US mulls Google antitrust suit
By Telegraph staff
Last Updated: 8:15am BST 09/09/2008

The US Justice Department has hired one of America's best-known litigators, former Walt Disney vice chairman Sanford Litvack, for a possible antitrust challenge to Google's growing power in advertising, the Wall Street Journal reports.

His hiring is the strongest signal yet that the US is preparing to take court action against Google and its search-advertising deal with Yahoo, the WSJ claims.

Combined, Google and Yahoo! would account for more than 80pc of US online-search ads.

Google shares tumbled 5.5pc, or $24.30, to $419.95 yesterday, while Yahoo shares rose 18 cents to $18.26.

US lawyers have been deposing witnesses and issuing subpoenas for documents to support a challenge to the deal for week, the WSJ reported, quoting lawyers close to the review. However, it adds that such efforts don't always mean a case will be brought.

The lawyers close to the review are reported to have said that Mr Litvack, who was the Justice Department antitrust chief under President Jimmy Carter, has been asked to examine the evidence gathered so far and to build a case if the decision is made to proceed.

It is not clear whether a US challenge would target the Google-Yahoo deal alone or take on broader aspects of Google's conduct in the growing online-advertising business.

The June agreement with Yahoo, gives Google the right to sell search and text ads on Yahoo sites, sharing revenue with Yahoo.

Display and search-based Web advertising, which are dominated by Google, have transformed the media industry. A federal antitrust case against Google could set new boundaries for internet competition, much as the Justice Department suit against Microsoft a decade ago broke ground applying antitrust law to new technologies.

Google has said the Yahoo deal doesn't violate antitrust law. It has argued - in public testimony before Congress and in private meetings with Justice Department lawyers - that the deal is pro-competition. The companies say they voluntarily delayed closing the deal until early October, to allow the US to complete its review.

"We voluntarily delayed implementation of this arrangement to give the Department of Justice time to understand it, and we continue to work cooperatively with them," Google told the Wall Street Journal. "While there has been a lot of speculation about this agreement's potential impact on advertisers or ad prices, we think it would be premature for regulators to halt the agreement before we implement it and everyone can judge the actual impact."

In a statement yesterday, Yahoo said: "We have been informed that the Justice Department, as they sometimes do, is seeking advice from an outside consultant, but that we should read nothing into that fact. We remain confident that the deal is lawful."

It is relatively rare for the Justice Department to hire a special counsel from outside the department. David Boies was brought in as a special counsel to build the landmark antitrust case against Microsoft in 1998. Stephen Axinn, another well-known New York litigator, was hired to challenge WorldCom Inc.'s proposed buyout of Sprint Corp. The companies abandoned that transaction in 2000 after the department and Mr. Axinn challenged the deal.

Mr. Litvack, who couldn't be reached for comment, resigned last week from Hogan & Hartson LLP, where he was a partner in the Los Angeles and New York offices. A Justice Department spokeswoman also declined to comment.

[ishak]

Google buys Korean blogging software company
Reuters, 13 Sep 2008

Google has bought Korean blogging software developer Tatter and Company, the two companies said on Friday.

The companies did not disclose how much Google paid for the acquisition.

Tatter co-chief executive Chang-Won Kim announced the deal on his personal blog in an entry titled 'We've been Googled!', saying that the acquisition would help Google increase its market share in the country.

Mr Kim described Google's market share in Korea as 'minor' and said Korean Web users mainly use portals such as Yahoo's .

Korea has the ninth-highest number of Internet users in the world, according to Internet World Stats, a website that tracks such data.

Google said in an emailed statement the acquisition will 'allow us to enhance our publishing tools in Korea'.

Tatter owns a blogging platform called Textcube, which Mr Kim said was popular among Korean bloggers. Blogs are Web journals where people typically write opinions and link to other material on the Internet.

As part of Google, the company will try to introduce Textcube to bloggers outside Korea, he added.

Google already owns a blogging software called Blogger, which it acquired in 2003.

Shares of Google closed Friday's session up nearly 1 per cent at US$437.66 on the Nasdaq.

[ishak]

Google mobile chief says can't afford a dud
Reuters, 13 Sep 2008

Google is betting it can revolutionise wireless Internet service on mobile phones the way that it transformed the search business on PCs.

The search behemoth has already taken on Microsoft Corp in the market for productivity and Web browsing software. Google's Android software is taking aim at Microsoft's Windows Mobile; Symbian, in which Nokia is an investor; and Apple's iPhone, which dominate the smart phone market.

Andy Rubin, Google's director of mobile platforms, told Reuters that Android's success hinges on the reception of the first phone, due out later this month.

'We're in the final stages and having lots of sleepless nights,' he said in an interview. 'We're very happy with the results,' said Mr Rubin, who worked previously at Apple and a number of Silicon Valley start-ups.

T-Mobile USA is expected to introduce the first Android phone in New York on Sept 23, sources familiar with the plan said this week.

After two years of speculation, Google is under pressure to deliver a product sufficiently different from Apple's iPhone and the myriad copycats that have appeared since it was introduced last year.

Rather than launch the new operating system with a range of devices from several handset makers and phone carriers, Mr Rubin said Google chose to 'put our blinders on' and make sure the first phones impress consumers.

'If we come out with a dud, people will go, 'Well, that was a waste of time',' said Mr Rubin, co-founder and former CEO of Danger, which built the T-Mobile Sidekick, a pioneering Web phone shaped like a bar of soap with a flip-out keyboard.

Google has worked almost exclusively with Taiwan's High Tech Computer Corp (HTC) and T-Mobile for the first Android phone, he said.

'Google wanted to make sure that we had enough control over the hardware to make sure the software worked,' he said.

Apple tightly controlled both the hardware and the software of the iPhone, which is seen by many mobile industry watchers as the future of device development.

Prior to working with Google, HTC relied on Microsoft Corp's Windows Mobile for its smart phones. HTC hopes Google's brand and popular services such as search, Gmail or YouTube can attract consumers beyond the business crowd that it expects to continue buying its Windows phones, said Jason Mackenzie, HTC's North American vice president of operations.

Independent developers
The first Android phone, code-named Dream, is depending on independent software developers to build hundreds or even thousands of programs, such as photo sharing, to run on Google software. Mr Rubin said a contest to lure early developers drew 1,759 application submissions.

'Once they leave the store with the device the thing that keeps them happy will be the software,' he said.

Apple's second-generation iPhone applied the same strategy, and offers more than 3,000 applications through its App Store.

Google plans its own software store, called Android Market.

'It's not necessarily the operating system software that is the unifying factor, it is the marketplace,' Mr Rubin said.

Unlike Apple, Google does not expect to generate revenue by selling applications or to share revenue with partners. 'We made a strategic decision not to revenue share with the developers. We will basically pass through any revenue to the carrier or the developer,' he said.

One of Google's challenges will be for Web page access to work on a mobile device as well as it does on a PC. The Android browser is built on the same technology as the new Google Chrome browser but designed for smaller screens.

'What you get will be Chrome Lite or Chrome To Go or Chrome Mobile,' Mr Rubin said.

[winston]

First 'Google phone' unveiled by T-Mobile

Google and telecom carrier T-Mobile has unveiled the first mobile device powered by the internet search giant's software, a smartphone seen as a potential rival to Apple's popular iPhone.

The T-Mobile G1, informally known as the ''Google phone,'' is built by Taiwanese firm HTC and was released by Google and T-Mobile executives in New York.

The phone runs on Google's open source Android software, which Google hopes will eventually become the dominant operating system for mobile phones and make handsets compatible with the networks of multiple carriers.

Internet retail giant Amazon.com announced shortly before the G1 release, in a direct challenge to Apple's iTunes, that the entire catalogue of the Amazon MP3 music store would be available on the new phone.

AGENCE FRANCE

[kennynah]

ugly like what....

[iam802]

the pics at HTC looks better

http://www.htc.com/www/product_gallery. ... derID=5786

[kennynah]

you are right....it looks better here...

*******

[iam802]

but, I think the iPhone still look sleeker....

competition is good