Posted 03/02/10 at 04:17:25 PM by Pulkit Chandna

In January, there were murmurs of Bing replacing Google as the default search provider on the Apple iPhone. The Gregorian calender has moved to March at its traditional pace and nothing has happened on that front. But Google Search is now on the verge of getting snubbed on its own turf: Android. If you are unaware, Android is coming to AT&T in the form of the Motorola Blackflip, which is scheduled  to hit stores on March 7, 2010. But Google will be a little less excited about the launch now, for the carrier is said to have removed Google as the default search provider “throughout” the phone and opted for Yahoo instead.

“Yahoo has replaced Google as the default search provider throughout the phone. It's crazy: the home screen widget, the browser, everything's been programmed to use Yahoo. We love us some irony, but golly, we'd prefer Google searches most of the time,” Engadget's  Chris Ziegler wrote on the blog after unboxing the phone.

It is no secret that Google is the world's most popular search provider by a long distance. It is difficult to imagine why smartphone users may want to use Yahoo or any other search engine over Google. However, in case there is even an iota of doubt over Google's popularity among smartphone users, it is best to leave the choice to the users themselves. Search engine ballot, anyone?

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Posted 02/25/10 at 07:34:28 AM by Paul Lilly

One thing Google and Yahoo have in common is that they're both big into the search game. And what else? They're both also being sued by Xerox.

In a lawsuit filed late last week, Xerox says both Google and Yahoo operate products and services that infringe on two of its patents, No. 6,778,979 and No. 6,236,994. These patents, granted in 2004 and 2001, respectively, have to do with how documents are organized.

Xerox said it has tried to work out a licensing deal with the two search giants, but neither Google or Yahoo would have any part of it. As it currently stands, the trio will do battle in court, where Xerox will seek an injunction against both search parties as part of the case.

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Posted 01/20/10 at 07:35:05 PM by Ryan Whitwam

As if the story of the Chinese cyber-attack wasn’t convoluted enough already, there’s still more news coming out. As Google was investigating the attacks it became apparent they were not the only victims. Upon discovering that Yahoo was targeted, Google reached out to “share knowledge”. It seems that Yahoo was aware of the attacks prior to Google contacting them, but chose to remain tight-lipped.

In the wake of the sophisticated attack, many of the victims are keeping their involvement secret. This is most likely to avoid demonstrating their vulnerability to the world at large. Several companies have, however, disclosed that they were affected by the attacks. Included in this group are Adobe, Juniper Networks, and Rackspace. Yahoo said in a statement that it is not their policy to disclose information relating to attacks on their systems. It remains unclear if Yahoo knew that the incident affected other companies. It’s possible their investigation was not as thorough as Google’s.

Yahoo has a history of cooperation with the authorities in Bejing. Activist groups have been outraged when, on several occasions, Yahoo handed over details on Chinese dissidents to the government. Should companies like Yahoo come clean and discuss the attacks?

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Posted 01/20/10 at 04:05:56 PM by Bart Salisbury

And advantage is an advantage, no matter how slight, and no matter how you come by it. Microsoft is using the ‘coerced’ limiting of its retention of search information by the European Union (EU), as a one-up against Google in the search-engine war.

Microsoft has agreed to a policy change for the retention of search requests on Bing, its newly launched search engine: six months rather than 18 months. The data retained by Microsoft consists of IP addresses (which can identify specific users on the Internet), and search terms. This data is used to improved the quality of Bing, as well as develop auxiliary services that enhance the search experience. Microsoft also claims this shorter retention period will better protect user privacy.

Google, on the other hand, just cut its data retention rate to nine months. While shorter than before, this is three months longer than the EU recommendation for data retention and Microsoft’s new data retention policy. Google defends its policy, stating: “Data from our search queries represents a crucial arm in our battle to protect the security of our services against hacks and fraud. It also represents a critical element allowing us to help users by innovating and improving the quality of our searches.”

While both Microsoft and Google claim they are motivated by user security, Microsoft says that Google's policy is not only riskier, but proves Google values less its users than does Microsoft. If you want your privacy protected, says Microsoft, you should be using Bing.

If privacy protection is your concern then your best bet is to avoid Google and Microsoft, and head over to Yahoo. Google doesn’t appear likely to budge on its policy anytime soon. Microsoft says it will take 12 to 18 months to figure out how to store data for six months rather than 18. Yahoo, on the other hand, says it will only keep your data for three months--a policy which its already implemented.

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Posted 01/15/10 at 08:02:13 PM by Ryan Whitwam

Microsoft’s new Bing search engine has made huge strides this year. Its market share is now somewhere north of 10%, and still increasing. Most of this increase is coming at the direct expense of Yahoo. In fact, some new projections indicate that Bing could pass Yahoo by the end of 2010.

This increase in Bing’s market share didn’t just happen. Microsoft is spending a lot of money to get a piece of that sweet search pie. In addition to advertising, the Redmond giant has bought up toolbar deals and is basically paying companies to foist Bing on their users. Verizon recently pushed out an update to Blackberry users that made Bing their default search engine.

Yahoo is in the odd position of being pretty cozy with their would-be usurper. Yahoo sells the ads on Bing, and uses the Bing engine on their site. Still, Yahoo makes most of their money on their own ads. If their search market share continues to decline, 2010 could be a tough year for Yahoo.

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Posted 01/14/10 at 07:06:10 AM by Paul Lilly

VMWare this week announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Zimbra from Yahoo. Zimbra specializes in email and collaboration software.

"Over the coming years, we expect more organizations, especially small and medium size businesses, to increasingly buy core IT solutions that deliver cloud-like simplicity in end-user and operational experience," said Brian Byun, VP and GM, Cloud Services, VMWare. "Zimbra is a great example of the type of scalable 'cloud era' solutions that can span smaller, on-premise implementations to the cloud."

In short, VMWare's interest in Zimbra stems from wanting help in selling cloud-computing services to businesses. At the same time, VMWare stated it plans to support existing Zimbra products and open-source projects.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, although it's believed VMWare paid far less than the $350 million Yahoo spent acquiring the company in September 2007.

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Posted 12/16/09 at 07:36:13 PM by Ryan Whitwam

It looks like AT&T could finally be getting its first Android powered handset. While this may be good news for those on the network that have been hankering for some Android, there are some odd things going on here. The Motorola Backflip/Enzo (name still in question) eschews the hinge mechanism we’re all familiar with. It's basically backwards so that when closed, the back of the phone has the keyboard exposed.

The phone runs on Motorola’s MotoBlur implementation of Android 1.5 similar to the T-Mobile CLIQ. The phone will have a 3.1 inch capacitive display, Wi-Fi, 5MP camera, and that same old Qualcomm 528Mhz CPU. The camera is at one end of the keyboard and faces the user when the phone is open. There’s also apparently a touchpad on the back of the phone (opposite the keyboard) that can be used for no-look scrolling.

The Backflip/Enzo takes the inadvisable step of ditching most of the Google apps. That’s right; this Android phone looks like it will ship with no Gmail, Gtalk, or even Google Search. There is a Yahoo search widget in place of the standard Google one. In an almost complete disconnect from reality, a Google login is still required to use the phone. It’s also loaded down with the usual AT&T software. No word on pricing or release date yet.

So, can an Android phone succeed without all those Google apps? Check out more pics here.

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Posted 12/16/09 at 03:12:19 PM by Bart Salisbury

The Business Insider is proclaiming that “Bing Crushes Yahoo Again in November”, based on numbers released by comScore for November search-engine performance. But do the numbers reported support this bold statement of success and failure?

According to comScore, search-engine market share broke down like this: Google, 65.6%; Yahoo, 17.5%; Bing, 10.3%; Ask Network, 3.8%; and AOL, 2.8%. (AOL still exists?) This seems to indicate that Yahoo and Bing still occupy the same ordinal ranks they did in October. A little closer, perhaps, but that’s about it. And, if anything, both were crushed by Google.

Maybe it’s the change from October to November that’s the cause for the hyperbole? Google was up 0.2 percentage points, Yahoo down 0.5 percentage points, and Bing up 0.4 percentage points. Yeah, Yahoo lost ground in November, and Bing gained, but the shifts don’t seem all that dramatic. And when you consider year-to-year (Y/Y) differences, Yahoo seems about the same place it was a year ago, with its "core search volume" up 1.1%. Bing is new to the market, so it showed a more dramatic 46% Y/Y increase (even though Bing isn’t yet a year old).

Still, trends for Yahoo seem pointed down, having fallen from a 20.1% market share in May to 17.5% in November, while Bing rose from 8.0% to 10.3%. Percentage-wise those differences may be meaningful. Maybe that justifies the hand-wringing over Yahoo and back-slapping for Bing.

Before getting too excited about the impending demise of Yahoo, it would be nice to see revenue figures for it and Bing. After all, it’s not the number of people using the service that really matters, it’s how much you make off those people that counts.

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