What? A Week!?
Wow, has it really been a week? I finally got an internet connection on my honeymoon, so I can finally blog for the first time in a week. Sorry, but I have been enjoying myself…
Two lessons about marriage: It is surprisingly happy, and surprisingly hard. You find these amazing moments where something fun or great happens, and you smile a little, and then you realize that the person that created that moment isn’t going anywhere, and you can always count on that. And there are moments were something difficult happens, and you realize you’ve commited to a lifetime of it.
It isn’t always easy, but, so far, it has been completely worth it.
Okay, so, how about some stories? I’ve got 12,000 Bloglines items, so time to get going…
Google And Baidu Split
Google has cut out of its 2.6% share in Chinese search engine Baidu. Last year, Google bought into Baidu as a way to ensure itself some sort of foothold in China, when there was no controversial Google China site and Google.com was getting blocked in that country. As Valleywag says, “Google finally realized that enemies don’t make the best bedfellows”. I’m not sure the investment was ever that good of an idea, and I hope Google at least made a few bucks on the deal.
Eric Schmidt’s Getting Married?
Valleywag also says that it is common gossip that Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife “are on the outs”, but they’ve also received a tip that Schmidt’s girlfriend Marcy Simon (a PR consultant) has been seen wearing a very fancy engagement ring. Not sure whether to feel sorry for one marriage, happy for the new one, but I do hope that, if it is true, Marcy talks some PR pillow talk to Eric. Google could use a wee bit more influence from PR.
Google News Now In Arabic
Aren’t you glad I didn’t devote an entire post to this? Yes, the entire story is in the headline. Oh, here’s a link to a news story, the Google Blog post, and a link to the service. See, I won’t waste your time trying to pretend there is more to say in this story.
Ah screw it: There are over 500 news sources. Ow, it burns!
Google AutoLink Patent
SEO By The Sea found a Google patent application filed in late 2004 for the AutoLink technology used in the Google Toolbar. If you like technical stuff, it explains how AutoLink works under the hood (it involves stripping out all the formatting and analyzing the content for words related to addresses, phone numbers flight information and other things).
Yahoo Sued For Google Ad Buy
The latest company getting sued for buying trademarked terms on Google is, surprisingly, Yahoo. Yahoo and three other companies have been sued by lovecity.com for buying keywords containing the term “lovecity”. The companies in the suit all bought ads on searches for lovecity, a dating site, in order to advertise their own sites. The case is clear-cut enough that all are likely to turn up losing.
Orkut Worm Steals Banking Credentials
A worm, targeted at Brazilian users of Google’s Orkut social networking service, was attempting to steal user’s banking credentials. The worm was aimed at gaining access to Brazilian bank accounts, since over 70% of Orkut’s users are Brazilian.
The worm, dubbed MW.Orc, primarily targets Brazilian users of Google’s Orkut Web site. It uses a message in Portuguese to entice people to click on a file that is disguised as a JPEG image, FaceTime Security Labs said in a statement.
The initial file, called “minhasfotos.exe,” creates two additional files on a user’s system, “winlogon_.jpg” and “wzip32.exe,” FaceTime said. When the user, after the initial compromise, clicks on the “My Computer” icon in Windows XP, an e-mail with his or her personal data is sent to the anonymous attacker, the security company said.
Additionally, the compromised computer may be added to a network of hijacked PCs, known as a botnet. The pest also tries to propagate by placing a malicious link on the profiles of people in the Orkut user’s network, FaceTime said.
Google reportedly had a fix within an hour, with work on more permanent solutions.
Marissa’s Notions Of Innovation
BusinessWeek printed Marissa Mayers’s nine notions of innovation. Naturally, Valleywag poked fun at all of them.
Can we please stop using “notion” anymore?
