Information Policy

Google warns Chinese copycat website: report

Google has warned a copycat Chinese website to stop using a logo that resembles the US Internet giant's or face possible legal action, state media reported Monday. The warning issued to the "Goojje" website comes as Google is contemplating its future in China after saying it would no longer obey government censorship rules and could pull out entirely over alleged cyberattacks. Google accused Goojje of infringing on its trademark rights, saying the logo of the Chinese website could make users believe it was authorised by or linked to the US company, the Shenzhen Economic Daily reported. In a letter sent to Goojje by Google's lawyers, the US Internet firm demanded the Chinese site stop using the logo by Monday, the report said. Reports have said Goojje was launched last month by a 20-strong team led by a college student identified only by the surname Wen, after Google issued its threat to pull out from China. The operators of Goojje have posted vague statements on the website construed by some media as offering support for Google. Goojje's homepage imitates Google's design and its Chinese name ends with a character that means "big sister". Google's Chinese name, meanwhile, ends with a character that is a homonym for "big brother".

Virtual economy is set to make billions

Virtual goods such as weapons or digital bottles of champagne traded in the US could be worth up to $5bn in the next five years, experts predict. In Asia, sales are already around the $5bn mark and rapidly growing. For many, virtual goods are one of the hottest trends in technology and are fuelling huge growth in the social gaming sector.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8425623.stm

Bing rings 70% search rise for Microsoft sites

The global search market grew a sizeable 46 percent between December 2008 and December 2009, from 89.7 billion to 131.4 billion searches conducted by people age 15 or older from home and work locations. These searches include the top properties where search activity is observed, not only the core search engines. Google of course took first place, but Microsoft managed to see the biggest percentage change, at least when looking at the top five search properties. When you represent the data visually, though, a larger percentage change isn't so formidable

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/01/bing-rings-70-search-rise-for-microsoft-sites.ars

Monster deal: Yahoo! sells jobs site for $225M

Yahoo! is selling its HotJobs Web site to Monster Worldwide for $225 million in cash. The deal also calls for Monster to supply content and listings to Yahoo! in the U.S. and Canada through 2013. The sale is part of a plan by Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz to focus on its home page and core businesses, according to these reports.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-02-03/yahoo-will-sell-hotjobs-to-monster-for-225-million-update2-.html

New Report: Social media and mobile internet use among teens and young adults

By Amanda Lenhart, Kristen Purcell, Aaron Smith, and Kathryn Zickuhr

Two Pew Internet Project surveys of teens and adults reveal a decline in blogging among teens and young adults and a modest rise among adults 30 and older. Even as blogging declines among those under 30, wireless connectivity continues to rise in this age group, as does social network use. Teens ages 12-17 do not use Twitter in large numbers, though high school-aged girls show the greatest enthusiasm for the application.

Among the findings for teens ages 12-17:

14% of online teens ages 12-17 now say they blog, down from 28% of teen internet users in 2006.

73% of online teens now use social networking websites, a significant increase from previous surveys. Just over half of online teens (55%) used social networking sites in November 2006 and 65% did so in February 2008.

8% of internet users ages 12-17 use Twitter. This makes Twitter far less common than sending or receiving text messages as 66% of teens do, or going online for news and political information, done by 62% of online teens.

In the past five years, cell phone ownership has become mainstream among even the youngest teens. Fully 58% of 12-year olds now own a cell phone, up from just 18% of such teens as recently as 2004.

For adults 18 and older:

Facebook is currently the most commonly-used online social network among adults. Among adult profile owners, 73% have a profile on Facebook, 48% have a profile on MySpace and 14% have a LinkedIn profile. 47% of online adults use social networking sites, up from 37% in November 2008.

81% of adults between the ages of 18 and 29 are wireless internet users. By comparison, 63% of 30-49 year olds and 34% of those ages 50 and up access the internet wirelessly. Young adults lead the way when it comes to using Twitter or status updating. One-third of online 18-29 year olds post or read status updates.

Read the full report on our site: http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Social-Media-and-Young-Adults.aspx

Over 1,500 domain names handed to hotels group in single ruling

A hotels group has gained control of over 1,500 domain names, using a dispute resolution process to take control of them from one man in Germany who controls over 70,000 domain names.

The single case, heard by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO)'s arbitration centre, transferred 1,519 domain names to the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), refusing to transfer just 10 of the names. The hotels group had withdrawn claims relating to 13 other domain names.

The case was taken by the Inter-Continental Hotels Corporation and Six Continents Hotels, both of which are owned by the IHG. The man who had registered the domain names was German resident Daniel Kirchhof.

WIPO's Uniform Domain Resolution Policy (UDRP) allows for the taking of one case to settle many disputes as long as the domain names are held by the same person. The rules also allow companies to take a joint case against a holder of domain names if they are related and have a common interest in the case.

The WIPO panel said that it accepted the taking of the action by two related companies over 1,500 domain names was acceptable.

http://www.out-law.com/page-10705

Mozilla Leader Worries About Internet Limits

The leader of the Mozilla Project, whose Firefox Web browser now has 350 million users, said Sunday that she is concerned that legal restrictions could limit Internet expansion.

Mitchell Baker said she worried about "the increase in laws that make it difficult to run an open network," especially rules about content.

"You suddenly become liable for anything that gets downloaded, whether it's legal or not," she said. "If you said to a municipality, if you build a road, you have to guarantee nothing illegal happens on it — that's what's happening on the Internet now. So that's the kind of regulatory disruption that's going to have some long-term consequences."

Baker spoke at an opening panel of a three-day conference on digital innovation and creative ideas.

The DLD conference — which stands for Digital-Life-Design — is chaired by Hubert Burda of Germany, owner of Hubert Burda Media, and digital investor Yossi Vardi, who co-pioneered instant messaging and chaired the panel, titled "Disruptive."

Niklas Zennstrom, co-founder of Skype which now has over 500 million users, said successful companies can't become complacent and must continue to make improvements and not be afraid "of disrupting themselves."

Vardi asked J.P. Rangaswami, chief scientist of the BT Group in Britain, what he thought of what Skype was doing to telecommunications companies like his.

"Watch this space," Rangaswami replied cryptically.

Vardi then asked Rangaswami whether he sees the industry following Skype's efforts to set minimal charges for phone calls around the world.

"I think those parts of the industry that don't follow what Niklas is doing will either find themselves out of a job or working for him," he replied.

American entrepreneur Jimmy Wales, whose nonprofit charity founded Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that has 350 million users, said it was a "very, very bad business" to try to compete against because the reference work is offered for free.

He ruled out advertising on the site for now — but left open the possibility it could happen sometime in the future to raise money for the charity.

Moderator Vardi expressed amazement that the Internet companies had small work forces despite their vast number of users.

Skype has just over 600 employees, Mozilla about 250, and Wikipedia just 30.

What advice would the three give to companies trying to get 100 million users?

"Stay out of software first of all," said Mozilla's Baker. "Go to Web sites and services."

Wales said, "Have a very pure, simple vision that everyone can understand immediately."

Zennstrom said the idea should also "make consumers' lives easier." And, he stressed, "don't do a copycat of someone else."

BT's Rangaswami said he believes the Web in the past 20 years has made people more willing to collaborate, to work together. The emphasis is on online data "because it's through that that people can do things," he told The Associated Press.

Ranjaswami said the key is transparency.

"So I think all the data.gov initiatives are very, very important because that's laying the foundations of the next generation — how we use that transparency of public information to start really making change as a result of community," he said.

Yves Daccord, director-general of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said in a video presentation that Twitter and the social media have been very important in mobilizing a response to the earthquake in Haiti and giving the people "the sense that we are very close."

In the future, he said, he expects victims of disasters to use social media more effectively to communicate their needs so humanitarian organizations can deliver better services and reunite families.

https://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/38661?7649

comScore Reports Global Search Market Growth of 46 Percent in 2009

Google Sites Accounts for Two-Thirds of 131 Billion Searches Conducted Worldwide in December while Introduction of Bing Helps Microsoft Post Significant Gains During the Year

Reston, VA, January 22, 2010 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released a study on growth in the global search market in 2009. The study revealed that the U.S. remains the largest search market worldwide, while Google Sites retains a commanding position in the global search market.

“The global search market continues to grow at an extraordinary rate, with both highly developed and emerging markets contributing to the strong growth worldwide,” said Jack Flanagan, comScore executive vice president. “Search is clearly becoming a more ubiquitous behavior among Internet users that drives navigation not only directly from search engines but also within sites and across networks. If you equate the advancement of search with the ability of humans to cultivate information, then the world is rapidly becoming a more knowledgeable ecosystem.”

Top Search Markets Worldwide

The total worldwide search market boasted more than 131 billion searches conducted by people age 15 or older from home and work locations in December 2009, representing a 46-percent increase in the past year. This number represents more than 4 billion searches per day, 175 million per hour, and 29 million per minute. The U.S. represented the largest individual search market in the world with 22.7 billion searches, or approximately 17 percent of searches conducted globally. China ranked second with 13.3 billion searches, followed by Japan with 9.2 billion and the U.K. with 6.2 billion. Among the top ten global search markets, Russia posted the highest gains in 2009, growing 92 percent to 3.3 billion, followed by France (up 61 percent to 5.4 billion) and Brazil (up 53 percent to 3.8 billion).

Top 10 Countries by Number of Searches Conducted* December 2009 vs. December 2008 Total Worldwide, Age 15+ - Home & Work Locations Source: comScore qSearch
	Searches (MM)
	Dec-2008	Dec-2009	Percent Change
Worldwide	89,708	131,354	46%
United States	18,688	22,741	22%
China	11,778	13,278	13%
Japan	6,213	9,170	48%
United Kingdom	4,623	6,245	35%
Germany	4,079	5,609	38%
France	3,362	5,425	61%
South Korea	2,796	4,039	44%
Brazil	2,454	3,763	53%
Canada	2,900	3,710	28%
Russian Federation	1,735	3,333	92%

*Searches based on “expanded search” definition, which includes searches at the top properties where search activity is observed, not only the core search engines.

Top Search Properties Worldwide

Google Sites ranked as the top search property worldwide with 87.8 billion searches in December, or 66.8 percent of the global search market. Google Sites achieved a 58-percent increase in search query volume over the past year. Yahoo! Sites ranked second globally with 9.4 billion searches (up 13 percent), followed by Chinese search engine Baidu with 8.5 billion searches (up 7 percent). Microsoft Sites saw the greatest gains among the top five properties, growing 70 percent to 4.1 billion searches, on the strength of its successful introduction of new search engine Bing. Russian search engine Yandex also achieved considerable gains, growing 91 percent to 1.9 billion searches.

Top 10 Search Properties by Searches Conducted December 2009 vs. December 2008 Total Worldwide, Age 15+ - Home & Work Locations Source: comScore qSearch
	Searches (MM)
	Dec-2008	Dec-2009	Percent Change
Worldwide	89,708	131,354	46%
Google Sites	55,638	87,809	58%
Yahoo! Sites	8,389	9,444	13%
Baidu.com Inc.	7,963	8,534	7%
Microsoft Sites	2,403	4,094	70%
eBay	1,327	2,102	58%
NHN Corporation	1,892	2,069	9%
Yandex	992	1,892	91%
Facebook.com	1,023	1,572	54%
Ask Network	1,053	1,507	43%
Alibaba.com Corporation	1,118	1,102	-1%

*Searches based on “expanded search” definition, which includes searches at the top properties where search activity is observed, not only the core search engines.

http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2010/1/Global_Search_Market_Grows_46_Percent_in_2009

Forecast: Search spending to increase 15% to 20% in 2010

The market for search advertising in 2010 looks stronger than previously anticipated, compelling Efficient Frontier to increase its estimate for search-ad spending growth to between 15% and 20%. Spending grew 6% in 2009, and Google's share of those dollars increased to 74.5%.

http://paidcontent.org/article/419-firm-ups-estimates-for-search-ad-spending-growth/

Nearly half of Google News users just read headlines: report

Nearly half of the users of Google News skim the headlines at the news aggregator site without clicking through to newspaper websites, according to a survey released on Tuesday. The findings by Outsell Inc. appear likely to provide further ammunition to publishers such as News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch who have criticized Google and other aggregators for linking to stories without sharing ad revenue. Google, responding to the criticism in the past from media tycoon Murdoch and others, has said it drives "about 100,000 clicks every minute" to media websites, generating ad revenue for the news outlets. Outsell analyst Ken Doctor said in a statement that "among the aggregators, Google's effect on the newspaper industry is particularly striking. "Though Google is driving some traffic to newspapers, it's also taking a significant share away," Doctor said. "A full 44 percent of visitors to Google News scan headlines without accessing newspapers' individual sites." Thirty percent of those surveyed said they do not use Google to find news stories, preferring to use other search services or to go directly to news publisher sites. Twelve percent said they use Google to get to a news site and then use the search function on that site to find other stories. Fourteen percent said they go back to Google to find other newspaper stories.

http://www.ejc.net/media_news/nearly_half_of_google_news_users_just_read_headlines_report/