Science and technology news blog

With Microsoft’s ‘Windows Mobile’ Smartphones an undoubted success in a world of Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and Samsung cell phones, Yahoo! has decided that it’s a market they can’t afford to ignore, and as a result have made their Yahoo! Go 2.0 available for the Windows Mobile platform.

While the original version of Yahoo! Go was derided by some as hard to use, Yahoo! Go 2.0 is a much better version that delivers a truly useful mobile search – and more – experience.

Although already available for other brands of cell phone, there are over 175 Windows Mobile smartphones capable of running the new Yahoo! Go 2.0 software, with over 100 models on sale in stores today.

Marco Boerries, the senior vice president of ‘connected life, Yahoo!’, said that “Consumers have been clamoring for us to bring Yahoo! Go 2.0 to Windows Mobile devices since we launched the service less than two months ago. There are millions of mobile phones on the Windows Mobile platform in the market today and consumers with these devices want to use the most advanced, exciting services available. Our innovative Yahoo! Go 2.0 service finally brings the open Internet to the mobile phone and gives consumers the compelling experience they have been looking for.”

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Yahoo Inc. quickly patched the critical vulnerability in their Windows IM (instant messaging) client. Yahoo is recommending that every user download and install the updated edition. Any version downloaded prior to November 2nd should be updated to the 8.1 version, but of course Yahoo said that the user will be prompted on log-in to update.

Internet security firm Secunia described the exploit as “highly critical” and was caused by a flaw in Yahoo Messenger ActiveX control that could be used by attackers to crash a chat session, bring down the Internet Explorer browser, or execute malicious code on a victimized PC.

Yahoo advised that the serious impact could only be possible if an attacker is successful in prompting someone to view malicious HTML code, most likely executed by getting a person to visit their Web page. Yahoo further stated that they know of any executable code exploits related to this issue.

A study from security vendor McAfee found that search query results returned by Google, AOL, and Ask.com are less likely to lead viewers to dangerous Web sites than they were six months ago. The study also found that Yahoo and MSN are not following that trend toward safer search results.

McAfee’s study crunched the new numbers over a six-month period as a follow-up to its May 2006 survey. That survey found that nearly 5 percent of all search results served up by Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, and Ask.com led Web surfers to malicious sites designed to infect computers with spyware, viruses, pop-up ads, junk e-mail, or other malware.

For the purpose of the study, McAfee’s SiteAdvisor organized a list of 2,500 keywords to evaluate the first five pages of search results for each keyword on each of the five search engines.

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Yahoo and Reuters are the latest organizations to launch a service that allows people to contribute photos and videos

With hundreds of millions of people having access to camera phones that are able to take high-quality photos and videos, Reuters and Yahoo want your participation. Yahoo and Reuters are inviting users to submit photos and videos for possible publication in a new project launching later today. You Witness News, the program which will allow users to unofficially become photojournalists, will publish content on Reuters.com and Yahoo News, the site that comScore MediaMetrix says is the most popular news web site in the United States.

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Despite the enormous popularity of Googles Gmail, and the massive filip Gmail received when it launched offering 1Gb of free storage, which doubled to 2Gb and is now nearly 3Gb, Yahoo Mail still has 10 times the users Gmail enjoys. So why copy Google?

Email is still the original killer app of the online world, with millions of messages sent back and forth everyday. But with instant messaging, millions more messages than even email traverse the system, as IM made text messaging on phones seem slow and IMd conversations almost as fluid as speech.

Indeed, young people regularly have four of five different conversations going at the same time, something that is nigh on impossible when talking, even though we all know a few motormouths out there who seem to try anyway.

So, with web based mail such a popular online application and means of communication, Google decided months ago to embed Google Talk within the Gmail online app. Now Yahoo, with half a billion people using one its communications products, is working on the same thing, although they say theyll still take months before it will be available to Yahoo Mail users.

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Linksys and Yahoo! have introduced a DECT cordless phone that can be used with a standard phone line or to make VoIP calls over Yahoo! Messenger with Voice, via a USB connection into a PC.

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Yahoo said Wednesday it had reached a multi-year deal to have its search tools distributed on PCs made by Taiwan-based Acer. Yahoo is hoping the move will help its search engine and other online tools reach users long before they even log onto the Web.

Acer is the fourth-largest maker of PCs in the world—it ranks third in notebook sales globally—and one of the fastest-growing, with its notebooks in particular gaining popularity as low-cost alternatives to more familiar brand-name options.

Tool Bar, Search Engine

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it calls for Acer PCs worldwide to be loaded with a co-branded Yahoo toolbar and Web start page and sets Yahoo as the default search engine.

The start page will automatically appear when a user opens a Web browser. That’s an especially important consideration going forward as the next upgrade of the Internet Explorer browser, IE7, will default to the Microsoft search engine unless that setting is changed by PC makers. Microsoft built this option into the browser to avoid antitrust complaints.

The deal came just 24 hours after Google announced it had reached a deal to have accounting and money-management software maker Intuit distribute Google tools, such as Web advertising and search features. Google has similar deals in place with other PC makers, including one announced in May with Dell.

Yahoo COO Dan Rosenweig said its deal would give millions of users “one-click access” to the portal’s growing menu of Web tools, from Web-based mail and instant messaging to news and Web search.

Yahoo said it has fixed a security vulnerability in its Yahoo Mail service that could have allowed malicious hackers to hijack accounts and harm users in a variety of ways.

“We have developed a fix for this bug and have deployed it worldwide. Yahoo Mail users will not be required to take any action to be protected from this exploit,” said Kelley Podboy, a Yahoo spokeswoman, via e-mail.

Nir Goldshlager and Roni Bachar from Avnet, a computer security company based in Israel discovered the vulnerability in early August.

Background

The problem was Yahoo Mail’s handling of attachments. By creating an HTML attachment with different encoding schemes, one could have bypassed Yahoo Mail’s security filter and executed malicious JavaScript code, Bachar said via e-mail.

The problem was Yahoo Mail’s handling of attachments. By creating an HTML attachment with different encoding schemes, one could have bypassed Yahoo Mail’s security filter and executed malicious JavaScript code, Bachar said via e-mail.

It was also possible to steal the recipient’s Yahoo Mail cookie, hijack the session and gain access to the person’s in-box. “This attack vector could be used to launch a variety of other more sophisticated attacks,” Bachar wrote. These could include unleashing worms, installing keylogger programs, phishing, and scanning ports on the PC.

After identifying the vulnerability, Bachar and Goldshlager immediately alerted Yahoo, so that the vendor could patch its system. Bachar isn’t aware of any known exploits of the vulnerability.

In the battle for the dominance in the digital music industry Sony and Yahoo have made a daring step: they are now offering more expensive tracks, but with no DRM.

The first MP3 that can be downloaded from Yahoo Music is Jessica Simpson’s A Public Affair. The implication of being DRM-free is that the tune can be played on any MP3 player, no matter the brand (iPod from Apple, Zen from Creative, Sansa from SanDisk, etc.). Other famous sites that allow music downloads only offer tunes with DRM, which makes them incompatible with some MP3 players (it is the case for Apples iTunes, Napster or Rhapsody).

DRM (digital right management) forbids users to make more copies of the downloaded tunes than those specified in the DRM and does not allow customers to share them (in some cases).

Although up until now record companies and record labels have refused to enter the DRM-free market, consumer advocates think that this is the beginning of a trend.

“It’s about time,” says Fred von Lohmann, a senior attorney with the public interest group Electronic Frontier Foundation. “This is an important signal that the labels may be finally realizing that DRM is hindering the size of the market.” (more…)

An amendment to require network neutrality—the idea that all content moving across the Internet would not be prioritized for delivery on the basis of fees—was defeated Wednesday in a U.S. Senate committee.

In an 11-11 vote, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Technology failed to attach the network-neutrality amendment to a bill that would remove certain barriers for telephone companies to sell TV services. The vote in favor of attaching the amendment included all the Democratic Senators plus Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine).

The main bill, dealing with broadband, TV, and other telecommunications matters, passed the Committee on a 15-7 vote. It includes a provision that allows the Federal Communications Committee to fine phone and cable companies if they try to block access to legal content or services on the Net.

A similar bill, which also does not include a requirement for network neutrality, has passed the House of Representatives.

Wyden To Filibuster?

The 11-11 vote means that network-neutrality amendment will not be added to the bill as it moves to the Senate floor to be debated. However, in another development yesterday, Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has indicated that he is prepared to filibuster the entire bill unless a provision for network neutrality is included.

“Without a clear policy preserving the neutrality of the Internet and without tough sanctions against those who would discriminate, the Internet will be forever changed for the worse,” Wyden said in a statement.

“A Verizon Communications executive has called for an ‘end to Google’s free lunch,’” he said. “A Bell South executive has said that he wants the Internet to be turned into a ‘pay-for-performance marketplace.’”

Under Senate rules, a Senator may filibuster by speaking without limit on a given measure, thus blocking a vote. Sixty votes in the Senate would be required to end a filibuster.

But Senator Ted Stevens (R-Ala.), who sponsored the main bill and chairs the Committee, has acknowledged he does not yet have 60 votes. It is expected that the bill will not reach the Senate floor until September at the earliest.

Telco Contradiction

Industry observers, by and large, are pointing to the many complications associated with the network-neutrality issue.

“The telcos’ main argument against net neutrality,” said Brian Washburn, an analyst with Current Analysis, “addresses mostly VoIP phone service, but also TV. Killing net neutrality could mean that telcos would have more control over competing TV services.”

He noted that cable companies already offer a higher-priority service for VoIP calls.

“But the contradiction, especially for the telcos, is that they want common carrier status, which means they’re not responsible for the content they carry,” he said. “But they also say they want to prioritize some traffic, getting into issues of prioritizing content as well as applications. And then it would seem they could be held accountable for content.”

Toll Roads

Senator Stevens maintains that imposing a “heavy-handed regulation” before there is a demonstrated need is wrong. His bill calls for the elimination of most state and local regulation of cell phone and TV service.

A key provision would allow phone companies to offer the equivalent of TV cable service by obtaining national franchises, rather than by obtaining licenses for each locality.

Proponents of network neutrality believe that, unless net neutrality is required, telecommunications companies will be able to charge different rates for different kinds of Internet content. Network neutrality would specifically prohibit these kinds of “toll roads.”

A coalition of consumer groups and major Internet companies, including Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, have fought to require nonpreferential treatment of content.

Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo have been acting like grownups recently in their decision to cooperate with the Chinese government in censoring Internet comment. You may not agree with their course of action—you may even condemn what they’re doing—but you have to admit that they’ve taken responsibility for their actions and decisions, and not tried to claim that the whole thing is beyond their control.

I wish I could say the three companies’ critics are also being grownups. It’s easy to be outraged by companies that cooperate with oppressive regimes, easy to post angry blog entries and issue impassioned press releases. But it’s harder to work for change.

In the latest developments, as reported in our story by Tom Claburn, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo tried to enlist the U.S. government to work to stop censorship in other countries, such as China. “As a U.S.-based company that deals primarily in information, we have urged the United States government to treat censorship as a barrier to trade,” said Andrew McLaughlin, Google’s senior policy counsel, in a statement prepared for a meeting held Wednesday by the Congressional Human Rights Caucus.

Google was condemned after it launched a Chinese Web presence that censors content deemed unfit by the Chinese government. Last month, Microsoft blocked access to the site of a Chinese blogger, Michael Anti. And Yahoo came under fire in September, following revelations that it supplied information to the Chinese authorities that led to ten-year prison sentence for Chinese journalist Shi Tao. (more…)

Shares of top Internet media companies Yahoo! and Google reached new highs at the stock market open Friday in anticipation of a slate of announcements at the annual Consumer Electronics Show, the CES, in Las Vegas.

Yahoo! (up $1.58 to $43.11, Research) shares surged more than 4 percent on expectations of new deals to more closely link its Web services to television sets and mobile phones.

Shares of Google (up $9.85 to $461.09, Research), which is also expected to make announcements later Friday at the CES, rose more than 1 percent, also touching an all-time high in morning trading.

Google’s market capitalization as of early Friday was $134.36 billion, a little over $1 billion more than IBM’s (Research) market capitalization.

Goldman Sachs raised its estimates for Yahoo’s full-year 2006 and 2007 earnings-per-share estimate to 85 cents and $1.05 per share respectively, up from earlier targets of 79 cents and 92 cents per share, reflecting higher search and branded advertising revenue growth.

Goldman also raised its raised its price target on Google to $500 per share, up from $400, following several price target upgrades at other banks. Piper Jaffray this week boosted its target on Google to $600 per share.

Yahoo CEO Terry Semel is expected to unveil a new service at the CES that will let users share digital media on phones, computers and other devices.

CBS made two of its sitcoms available as free streaming downloads on a Yahoo Web site yesterday, marking the television network’s entry into Web-based distribution under a model that differs from what its competitors are doing with their shows.

For this week only, the shows—“Two and a Half Men” and “How I Met Your Mother”—will each have two previously aired full-length episodes available on Yahoo Inc.’s television site ( http://tv.yahoo.com ) and its video search.

“This deal marks a continuation of our ongoing broadband initiatives at CBS, and we believe that working closely with Yahoo will generate significant awareness for these two comedy series,” said Lawrence S. Kramer, president of CBS digital media. (more…)

THE Japanese Government has marshalled a coalition of technological and corporate firepower in an attempt to break the global stranglehold of Yahoo! and Google.

The project is tipped to cost about 500 million and will probably take about three years to complete, government insiders say. The search engine aims to be the ultimate tool for navigating online content, and will give web users a Japanese alternative to the two US giants.

Work on the search engine begins this week. The project has so much political weight behind it that it will bring together fierce rivals such as Sony and Matsushita.

An internal Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) report obtained by The Times describes the need for Japan to use its technological prowess to fight back in an area where it has so far been only a minor player.

The impetus is believed to come indirectly from the IT research department of the office of Junichiro Koizumi, the Prime Minister. He has embraced the internet as a political tool, and has emphasised Japans need to extend its presence in the world of information technology. The Education and Internal Affairs ministries will play a central role, along with the state-funded broadcaster NHK. (more…)

Yahoo! Inc., seeking to increase the amount of user-generated content on its web sites, is offering a service that lets people pose questions and receive answers from other Yahoo users.

Yahoo Answers is designed to provide information that can’t easily be found using an Internet search engine, the Sunnyvale, California-based company said. Users will be able to vote on which answer is the best for each question.

The free service may help Yahoo, the No. 2 Internet search engine behind Google, lure more users and sell more advertising. Mountain View California-based Google has a competing service in which dedicated researchers answer questions for a fee.

“We’re looking to have a way for communities with big groups of passionate people to have a more structured and efficient way to find answers to questions,’’ said director of engineering at Yahoo Search.

Yahoo’s new service highlights the growing trend of consumers posting their own content to the Web through message boards or personal online journals known as Web logs. One example of that trend is Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia that is written and edited by people around the world.

Yahoo won’t post ads on the service at first, although they may come in the future, Shaked said. The questions and answers will be available for all users to see.

No one has so far offered an answer to the question.