Microsoft Pays Enterprise Customers To Adopt Windows Live Search

Microsoft Pays Enterprise Customers To Adopt Windows Live Search

CEO Steve Ballmer outlines the company's new initiative to become an Internet, information, and advertising company.

Microsoft's next big opportunity appears to be paying business customers to use its search products.

At a speech on Thursday at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer described Microsoft's effort to build "two new muscles" by becoming a modern consumer electronics company and "an Internet, information, and advertising company."
"Google has obviously done a nice job with their search product, but frankly have had a hard time getting traction in some of the other areas," said Ballmer.

Having had something of a hard time getting traction in the search business itself, Microsoft has turned to paying Windows enterprise customers to use its Live search tools.
The program is called "Microsoft Service Credits for Web Search." Based on screenshots of a PowerPoint presentation about the program posted by entrepreneur and author John Battelle on his blog, Microsoft is offering enterprise customers between $2 and $10 in credit for Microsoft products and services per PC enrolled annually.

In an e-mail statement, Microsoft confirmed the existence of the program. "Currently, we are conducting a trial program through which Microsoft is providing service or training credits to a select number of enterprise customers based on the number of Web search queries conducted by their employees via Live Search," said a Microsoft spokesperson. "These customers, in turn, are providing valuable feedback to Microsoft on the use of Web search in an enterprise environment. As search evolves into more of a productivity tool, and revenue sharing becomes more commonplace across the industry, we are engaging in mutually beneficial partnerships such as this and our recently announced deal with Lenovo to more easily enable customers to choose Live Search."

Earlier this week, Lenovo Group said that it had struck a deal with Microsoft to preconfigure its PCs to use Windows Live. Google has entered into similar deals with PC makers to distribute its search toolbar and other software.

Microsoft's search credit program appears to have three tiers: "low," "moderate," and "high." The latter two reportedly involve the removal of all toolbars -- Google and Yahoo both use toolbars to drive search traffic -- and setting employees' browser home page to Live Search. The program requires Internet Explorer 7, which suggests Microsoft also aims to counter defections to Firefox and other browsers.

Microsoft remains a distant third in the search market, behind Google and Yahoo.
Earlier this month, it was widely reported that Christopher Payne, corporate VP of Windows Live Search, planned to leave Microsoft to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities. Among bloggers, Payne's departure was seen as a sign of Microsoft's dissatisfaction with its search efforts.

Google did not respond to a request for comment.

Google Acquires In-Game Ad Company Adscape

Google Acquires In-Game Ad Company Adscape

The search engine is expected to integrate Adscape's technology with its AdWords and AdSense programs.

Google on Friday said it had acquired in-game advertising company Adscape Media for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition was first rumored back in January 2007.

"[W]e think there is great value in video game advertising," Google explained on its Web site. "As more and more people spend time playing video games, we think we can create opportunities for advertisers to reach their target audiences while maintaining a high quality, engaging user experience."

An acquisition of Adscape could pay for itself relatively soon. The in-game advertising market is poised for explosive growth, garnering more than five times the current market value to reach $732 million by 2010, according to an April 2006, the Yankee Group estimate.

Presumably, Google will integrate the ability to buy in-game ads to its online ad platforms (AdWords and AdSense), though Google said it had no plans to announce at this time.

Google is not alone in its interest in in-game advertising. Last May, Microsoft said it would acquire Massive Inc., another in-game advertising company for nearly $200 million.

Google also announced another acquisition Friday: Gapminder's Trendalyzer data visualization software and the developers behind it. Terms of the acquisition and purchase price were not disclosed.

Privacy Starts Making Sense for Google

Privacy Starts Making Sense for Google

Storage cost savings may have prompted the search company to think about anonymizing selected server logs.

"After talking with leading privacy stakeholders in Europe and the U.S., we're pleased to be taking this important step toward protecting your privacy," said Peter Fleischer, privacy counsel-Europe, and Nicole Wong, deputy general counsel, in a blog post. "By anonymizing our server logs after 18-24 months, we think we're striking the right balance between two goals: continuing to improve Google's services for you, while providing more transparency and certainty about our retention practices."

Google says it will change some of the digits in logged IP addresses and alter cookie file information to anonymize users. The technical details have yet to be worked out.

Don't expect a guarantee of anonymity, however. "It is difficult to guarantee complete anonymization, but we believe these changes will make it very unlikely users could be identified," Google says. Privacy advocate Lauren Weinstein, in a message posted to David Farber's Interesting People e-mail discussion list, called the move "an immensely positive sea change to Google's attitude toward this data."

Google has already demonstrated noteworthy commitment to privacy through its decision to fight a U.S. Department of Justice subpoena received in 2005 demanding user search data, a battle that AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo shied away from. The court hearing the case eventually denied the U.S. Department of Justice access to Google search data and allowed it only a small portion of the URLs sought from Google's Web index.

A spokesperson for the DOJ declined to comment on Google's change in policy. Federal officials have said that the U.S. government is opposed to mandatory data destruction requirements and have urged ISPs and Internet companies to retain server log data for at least two years to assist law enforcement efforts.

It remains to be seen how eager Google and other companies will be to keep any kind of data about their users once they see the bill.

David McClure, president and CEO of the U.S. Internet Industry Association, says the Department of Justice needs to be much clearer about what it is asking for and how the Internet industry might be able to accommodate legitimate government interests.

"We don't mind the investment, but we hate throwing money away and making consumers pay more for something we know from the outset we know won't work," says McClure, who says that anyone with any level of technical sophistication will be able to avoid being identified by an IP address.

McClure points out that the cost of keeping a gigabyte of data for a year is about $7.60, twice that if the data is stored in a secure data center. According to an IDC study commissioned by storage vendor EMC, 161 exabytes of digital information were created and copied in 2006. One exabyte equals a billion gigabytes. By 2010, IDC expects the volume of data created and copied to rise sixfold to 988 exabytes, reflecting a compound annual growth rate of 57%.

Privacy suddenly looks a lot like savings.

Copyrighted Videos Still On YouTube After Lawsuit

Copyrighted Videos Still On YouTube After Lawsuit

Stephen Colbert is gone, but Jon Stewart is still on. "South Park" is out, but "Adult Swim" is still in.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Stephen Colbert is gone, but Jon Stewart is still on. "South Park" is out, but "Adult Swim" is still in.

Viacom Inc. sued Google Inc.for more than $1 billion Tuesday over alleged copyright violations by its YouTube video unit. Viacom has succeeded in winning the deletion of some of its content, but many popular clips are still easily available.

That fact underscored the challenges in policing one of the Internet's most popular sites, where content is supplied by an army of fans eager to share that hilarious bit from last week's "Saturday Night Live" or "Family Guy."

Many popular clips on YouTube have come from shows that air on Viacom's family of television stations, which include Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and MTV.

Viacom said nearly 160,000 unauthorized clips had been uploaded onto YouTube and viewed more than 1.5 billion times.

YouTube's video swappers have poached particularly heavily from Comedy Central, thanks to programs such as "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," "South Park" and "Robot Chicken," which all feature bite-sized skits that lend themselves easily to sharing over the Web.

Other shows appearing regularly on YouTube include NBC's long-running comedy sketch show "Saturday Night Live" and "Family Guy," an over-the-top animated comedy that airs on News Corp.'s Fox network.

Calls to pull videos from YouTube are reminiscent of the music industry's largely unsuccessful attempts to stamp out peer-to-peer song sharing services. If a video is deleted, the person who posted it or copied it can make a few changes to the file and repost it.

On Tuesday afternoon, a search on YouTube for "daily show" turned up 2,800 clips, but only a handful actually featured Stewart's program, with the rest being commentaries or unrelated videos using those keywords to lure viewers.

Similar searches for the network's crude animated hit "South Park" and faux-conservative talk show "The Colbert Report" showed that nearly all actual footage of those shows had been taken down.

But a search of Fox's "Family Guy" showed 18,000 results, with the top listings being actual clips from the show running from 35 seconds to more than seven minutes.

A YouTube search of "Saturday Night Live" turned up nearly 5,200 clips, with the top results including a sexually themed Christmas song by pop star Justin Timberlake that had racked up 18 million views.

NBC, majority owned by General Electric Co., has allowed YouTube to host a limited number of clips from "SNL" to promote the show, but in general has been critical of the site. Just over a year ago, NBC asked YouTube to remove an "SNL" rap music parody when it triggered an Internet craze and cemented YouTube's reputation as the clearinghouse for cool videos.

As the effects of Viacom's lawsuit worked their way through YouTube, some users voiced their displeasure at what they saw as heavy-handed tactics by -- what else? -- posting videos on YouTube.

"Let us send them a message that, while they own their content, they don't own their viewers," read one message that scrolled into the background like the opening of a "Star Wars" movie. "Boycott Viacom until they get the message."

Google Out, Microsoft In As Default Live Search In Lenovo PCs

Google Out, Microsoft In As Default Live Search In Lenovo PCs

The deal puts Windows Live services in Lenovo-branded PCs, ThinkPad notebooks, and ThinkCentre desktops.

Lenovo Group on Wednesday said it has agreed to preload Microsoft's Windows Live online services in its PCs, giving a potential boost to the software maker's lagging search service.

The Chinese company plans to make Live.com, a customizable Web page for news, information, and search, the default home page in the Internet Explorer Web browser, which also will include Microsoft's toolbars. The deal replaces a similar agreement with Google.

The agreement matches the third-largest PC maker with the third-ranking search engine. Lenovo's worldwide PC sales are behind No. 1 Dell and Hewlett-Packard, and Microsoft is far behind search leaders Google and Yahoo, with less than 11% of the market as of January, according to comScore Networks.

While Lenovo customers will be able to change the browser settings to another search provider, people often keep the default settings, experts say.

Lenovo, which bought IBM's PC unit in 2005, is the first computer maker to agree to preload Windows Live services. The company plans to include the services in its Lenovo-branded PCs, as well as ThinkPad notebooks and ThinkCentre desktops.

Peter Gaucher, executive director for strategic alliances at Lenovo, declined to discuss whether Microsoft outbid Google to replace its rival, saying only that the decision was a "combination" of business and technology considerations. The deal with Microsoft, however, goes further than one the company had with Google, since the new agreement includes Live.com as the default home page for IE. The agreement with Google only involved its toolbar, Gaucher said.

In the future, Lenovo plans to incorporate support and other customer-focused services and information in the home page, Gaucher said.

FireScope Uses Google Maps To Monitor Network

FireScope Uses Google Maps To Monitor Network

The FireScope management portal is using Google Maps to give IT managers a real-time view of their infrastructure, even if it's spread around the globe.

Google Maps can be used for more than finding a great restaurant on a business trip, or pinpointing your house on a satellite image.

FireScope has added Google Maps to its FireScope management portal, enabling IT managers to view all of their security products and infrastructure pieces at work real-time in all of the company's locations -- even if they're spread across the globe. Firewalls, intrusion-detection systems, routers, and switches can all be monitored and managed from the one portal.

"We were really looking for something that would tie in the products we have but give us much better visibility into our environment," says Joe Holop, chief technology officer of Telscape Communications, a local exchange carrier in Monrovia, Calif. "This was an opportunity for us to solve a key problem. As we continue to grow, we're trying to avoid adding additional people power, utilizing tools to keep our cost down. We had budgeted for two new people but avoided [making the hires] because now we can manage everything through the product."

FireScope partnered with Google Maps, using it as the interface for the portal appliance, which was launched on March 6. The map gives users a single view into their security infrastructure. On the screen, IT managers can see map points, which are the locations of any of their security-related products along with any offices, warehouses, or facilities spread across the globe, explains Mark Lynd, president of FireScope. Click on the point-and-see real-time monitoring and analysis of the links between the physical locations, and users can track how the pieces of the infrastructure are functioning and get a report of any incidents.

The product is designed, for instance, so that a click on the map point for a single building or

Holop says part of his job is monitoring 105 sites where Telscape's customers are connected to access nodes. They're mainly spread through Los Angeles and San Diego, with a growing base in Nevada.

"In the past, we really had just network diagrams and it was harder to ascertain what location we were looking at," says Holop. "Was it a kiosk or a

switch site? Now we can assimilate the real location and do a meaningful drill down."

Along with saving Telscape the cost of adding two new IT workers, Holop says the FireScope appliance flagged security risks that had been going unnoticed. "With the tool's discovery capabilities, we were able to uncover some issues that, even with the added manpower, we wouldn't have found," he explains. "On our firewalls we had some ports that weren't a severe vulnerability but there was a potential for hacking, so we closed those down. And we had some instances where we uncovered that some methods we were using to lock some clients down weren't working well enough. We were able to flag it all."

Four different FireScope appliances are available, ranging in price from $10,000 to $100,000.

Viacom Sues Google For Massive Copyright Infringement On YouTube

Viacom Sues Google For Massive Copyright Infringement On YouTube

The media company's complaint asserts that almost 160,000 unauthorized clips of Viacom content have been made available on YouTube.

When Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock last October, the property was widely seen as a fixer-upper. Based on a lawsuit filed by Viacom on Tuesday, the house that Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim built has a nice view but its foundation looks shaky.
Google's September 2006 10-Q financial filing put it thus: "[O]ur planned acquisition of YouTube may also subject us to additional copyright claims upon the closing of the transaction."
Rumors at the time, denied by Google CEO Eric Schmidt, suggested Google had set aside some $500 million to pay copyright claims. A company spokesperson reiterated Schmidt's dismissal of those rumors.

On Tuesday, Viacom, the parent company of MTV, Comedy Central, and Paramount Pictures, announced that it had filed a $1 billion lawsuit against Google and YouTube in New York for "massive copyright infringement of Viacom's entertainment properties."

The complaint asserts that almost 160,000 unauthorized clips of Viacom content have been made available on YouTube and that these clips have been viewed more than 1.5 billion times.
Echoing charges made by Microsoft executive Thomas Rubin last week at the Association of American Publishers annual meeting in New York, Viacom said in a statement: "YouTube is a significant, for-profit organization that has built a lucrative business out of exploiting the devotion of fans to others' creative works in order to enrich itself and its corporate parent Google. Their [sic] business model, which is based on building traffic and selling advertising off of unlicensed content, is clearly illegal and is in obvious conflict with copyright laws."

Google, having heard and addressed such claims before on YouTube, and on other properties like Google News and Google Book Search, issued a statement insisting its behavior is lawful. "We are confident that YouTube has respected the legal rights of copyright holders and believe the courts will agree," the company said.

Gregory Rutchik, founding attorney at the San Francisco-based Arts & Technology Law Group, more or less agrees. "I think Viacom has an uphill battle to argue that YouTube, as a broadcast model, is really a media company and not a service," he said, referring to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's "safe harbor" protection, which shields online service providers from liability for the actions of customers.

Google's statement, in fact, attempts to make clear the value of its service: "YouTube is great for users and offers real opportunities to rights holders: the opportunity to interact with users; to promote their content to a young and growing audience; and to tap into the online advertising market. We will certainly not let this suit become a distraction to the continuing growth and strong performance of YouTube and its ability to attract more users, more traffic and build a stronger community."

Viacom could have attacked that community by suing the individuals responsible for uploading those 160,000 unauthorized clips, following in the footsteps of the Recording Industry Association of America's ongoing crusade against song sharing. The fact that it didn't do that suggests Google's message -- there's money to be made with us -- isn't lost on Viacom.

"I think this is a negotiating tactic," said Rutchik. "It's an opportunity for Viacom to turn the heat up. It's very standard operating procedure in business litigation."

Verizon Business Launches Nationwide Ethernet Virtual Private LAN Service

Verizon Business Launches Nationwide Ethernet Virtual Private LAN Service

The service is designed to give U.S. businesses and government agencies the ability to link their Ethernet LANs that are scattered among various locations.

Verizon Business on Monday launched an Ethernet Virtual Private LAN Service (E-VPLS) that's designed to give U.S. businesses and government agencies the ability to link their Ethernet LANs that are scattered throughout various locations.

The technology, which utilizes Verizon's converged packet architecture, allows users to adjust network bandwidth from 1 Mbps to 1 Gbps. The boost in data speeds transmits voice and data applications efficiently and cost effectively, Verizon said.

"This new service combines the simplicity of Ethernet, the reliability of synchronous optical network, and the flexibility of multiprotocol label switching to help organizations cost-effectively upgrade their existing corporate networks for converged voice, data, and video applications," said Tom Roche, Verizon's VP of business data products, in a statement.

As a layer 2 networking technology, the Verizon E-VPLS offering lets customers control their own routing and not be dependant on a service provider. E-VPLS is useful for frame relay or ATM users who want to upgrade their WANs. The new offering is protocol independent and supports both IP and non-IP applications, according to Verizon.

E-VPLS establishes priorities for four classes of service as follows: Real Time, Priority, Business, and Basic Data. For instance, users can stipulate that business-critical apps receive the highest priority on a network. An advantage of the Real Time class of service is that it's capable of carrying latency-sensitive traffic like VoIP and digital video.

Nokia To Challenge Google and Yahoo With Mobile Ad Services

Nokia To Challenge Google and Yahoo With Mobile Ad Services

Nokia plans to launch two new mobile advertising services. What? Nokia is going to offer advertising? Does that mean Nokia is now a rival to Google? Yes, Virginia, it seems everybody is now in competition with Google.

Nokia's two new mobile ad platforms, Nokia Ad Service and Nokia Advertising Connector, will move the company into the mobile advertising market, making it a competitor with Google and Yahoo.

Nokia Ad Service is a fully managed platform for advertisers looking to expand their reach to the third screen. NAS will give advertisers access to tools for planning, deployment, optimization, and reporting for campaigns. NAS also will support interactive content like banner ads in mobile browsers and multimedia ads in applications like videos.

Nokia Advertising Connector is designed to help advertisers port different ads to different mobile devices and content formats. NAC will switch ads between text, image, audio, and video formats depending on the mobile phones a users are on.

Nokia said that both services will give users lots of data and reporting -- must-haves for today's online marketers. Nokia plans to launch both services in the second half of 2007.