A threat of a crackdown “like China” by India has forced Google and Facebook to remove content that were deemed offensive to religions in the country. The threat comes after a lawsuit by one person claiming that both companies were violating Indian law.

The decision came after a lawsuit by a Muslim petitioner, Mufti Aijaz Arshad Qasmi; with the court asking all 21 sites listed in the case to file a report within 15 days of content removed.

“The review team has looked at the content and disabled this content from the local domains of search, YouTube and Blogger,” Google spokeswoman Paroma Chaudhry told the Reuters news agency.

The law in question makes content providers responsible for all content that users upload, and they have only 36 hours to take down offensive material if there was a complaint. This was the basis of another successful lawsuit brought by a Hindu petitioner in the High Court. Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Yahoo are seeking to appeal the decision.

The Indian Government has been supportive of the move to seek Google, Facebook and others to remove content that are deemed objectionable to religious sentiments.

As Reuters have also pointed out:

While civil rights groups have opposed the new laws, politicians say posting offensive images in a socially conservative country, which has a history of violence between religious groups, presents a danger to the public.

India does have a history of religious conflicts, the last major was in 2008 that saw over 20 killed and 12,000 displaced because of riots. And obviously, they have a right to maintain stability in the country as, after all, a country of over one billion people with all different religious backgrounds can create some instability based on religion.

However, while the Indian Government want to see this implemented by companies, it is realistically impossible to monitor what is uploaded to their servers. The only move they can do is simply be reactive to what is happening, not proactive. It sort of echos the copyright lobby groups who, in SOPA, to make Google responsible to what searches come up or what appears on YouTube that is copyright infringing.

But it also does have a frightening impact on what you can and cannot say. While we can obviously identify what is highly intolerant comments, there are some areas where this can be abused. I mean, take the recent example of a Christian teacher in Perth going to ACMA over a simple 7.30 sketch by Clarke and Dawe. The teacher was offended by this, saying it vilified Christians:

Dawe: A lot of them must realise the damage they are doing?
Clarke: Oh, they do. A lot of them are Christians.
Dawe: So there would be a lot of guilt?
Clarke: A lot of guilt. A lot of denial.
Dawe: Look what they are doing to the asylum seekers.
Clarke: Perfect example. Perfect example.
Dawe: So they’d be blaming each other too, I’d imagine.
Clarke: Blaming everybody. I mean you can’t get anybody to admit to owning up to anything in the whole place.

If you saw the clip, and thank God for ACMA’s finding, it was not offensive to – as ACMA puts it – “an ordinary, reasonable viewer”.

It’s a very fine line, one that any decision should not go too far.

Image: Sudhamshu/Flickr (Creative Commons)

Jerry Yang has announced he will resign from Yahoo’s Board of Directors and all other positions within the company and its subsidiaries, effective immediately. The news is highly surprising, and speculation is rising that Yahoo could be bought out.

“My time at Yahoo!, from its founding to the present, has encompassed some of the most exciting and rewarding experiences of my life. However, the time has come for me to pursue other interests outside of Yahoo!” Yang said in a letter – released to the public.

“As I leave the company I co-founded nearly 17 years ago, I am enthusiastic about the appointment of Scott Thompson as Chief Executive Officer and his ability, along with the entire Yahoo! leadership team, to guide Yahoo! into an exciting and successful future.”

Yang co-founded the company in 1995, and served in the Board of Directors. He briefly took the role of CEO during June 2007 to early 2009 (where he was replaced with Carol Bartz) – which is marred by the stunning rejection by Yahoo of Microsoft’s takeover proposal that began the shareholder struggles. With Yahoo’s fortunes still dwindling, Yang ironically saved Microsoft from making a big mistake in investing into Yahoo.

Oh, and we wouldn’t have Bing.

But with him out of the way, does this mean that a potential buyer has been found? The company has struggled with the advent of MySpace, Facebook, and the growing rise of Google. Yahoo’s strongest asset is its content production – which, incidentally, is also where AOL (another former tech luminary) is heading as well. So, that also poses the question – will Yahoo break up?

Yahoo has found a new CEO. After unceremoniously dumping previous CEO Carol Bartz, hired in order to salvage the company, it has now brought in PayPal’s President Scott Thompson.

Interim CEO Tim Morse, placed by the board during the search, will return to his role as chief financial officer in the company.

Thompson has been tasked to focus on Yahoo’s “core business” – whatever that is – and to “reignite innovation and drive growth”, This will mean that the company could dump assets – including its stake in China’s Alibaba and the Japanese Yahoo portal. Those two assets in particular are important as they are highly profitable investments for Yahoo.

For those business-minded, the full press release is below.

Yahoo! Appoints Scott Thompson Chief Executive Officer

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), the premier digital media company, today announced the appointment of Scott Thompson as Chief Executive Officer, effective January 9, 2012 , at which time Tim Morse will resume his role as Chief Financial Officer. Thompson has also been appointed to the Company’s Board of Directors, effective January 9, 2012.

Thompson served most recently as President of PayPal, a division of eBay, where he continued his established track record of growing businesses by driving customer engagement built on strong technology platforms. Under his leadership, PayPal solidified its lead as the global online payment service, expanding its user base from 50 million to more than 104 million active users in 190 countries worldwide, increasing the number of merchant partners to more than 8 million globally, and growing revenues from $1.8 billion to $4+ billion in 2011.

“Scott brings to Yahoo ! a proven record of building on a solid foundation of existing assets and resources to reignite innovation and drive growth, precisely the formula we need at Yahoo!,” said Roy Bostock , Chairman of the Yahoo ! Board. “His deep understanding of online businesses combined with his team building and operational capabilities will restore the energy, focus, and momentum necessary to grow the core business and deliver increased value for our shareholders. The search committee and the entire Board concluded that he is the right leader to return the core business to a path of robust growth and industry-leading innovation.”

“Yahoo! is an industry icon and I am very excited about the prospect of working with one of the great teams in the online world to deliver Yahoo!’s next era of success,” Mr. Thompson said. “Yahoo! has a rich history and a solid foundation to build on, and its continued user engagement is one of the many reasons for my enthusiasm. With the ultimate goal of delivering the value our shareholders expect, my immediate focus will be on getting to know the entire team and hearing more from all Yahoo!s, working closely with the engineers and product teams, and diving deeply into our products and services to learn more about what our more than 700 million users find most engaging and useful. I will also be working directly with our region leaders and sales teams globally to get a clearer understanding of the needs of our advertisers and publishers. Clearly, speed is important but we will attack both the opportunity ahead and the competitive challenges with an appropriate balance of urgency and thoughtfulness. I cannot wait to get started.”

“Scott’s primary focus will be on the core business, and as CEO and director, he will work closely with the Board as we continue the strategic review process to identify the best approaches for the Company and its shareholders. As part of this process, Yahoo ! is considering a wide range of opportunities for the Company’s business, as well as specific investments or dispositions of assets,” added Bostock.

“We are all grateful to Tim Morse for leading the company with a steady hand during the last several months. His deep understanding of the Company and his positive approach kept the company on course and we will continue to benefit from his exceptional capabilities as he returns to his Chief Financial Officer role,” Bostock concluded.

Scott Thompson Biographical Information
Scott Thompson has a record of deep industry experience, having most recently served as President of PayPal with overall responsibility for establishing that company as the leading global online payment service. He previously served as PayPal’s Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. Prior to PayPal, Mr. Thompson was Executive Vice President of technology solutions at Inovant , a subsidiary of Visa formed to oversee global technology for the organization. Thompson was also Chief Information Officer of Barclays Global Investors , where he implemented a new strategic technology platform and global infrastructure. In addition, he worked with Coopers and Lybrand, delivering information technology solutions to leading financial services clients.

Microsoft is looking at Yahoo’s financial statements after it signed a non-disclosure agreement, according to the New York Times. However, is this a sign of a possible acquisition of Yahoo again, failing to do so in 2008?

The New York Times also points that other potential bidders for the company like Silver Lake and TPG Capital, both private equity firms, have also have access to Yahoo’s books. In addition, Microsoft is rumoured to have held talks to its partners for a possible group bid to buy the struggling web property.

Microsoft attempted to buy out Yahoo once to prop up its then-failing web strategy. In some cases, its online strategy is still a mess, but it has somewhat improved. Bing is now the second-popular search engine in the United States, and its online strategy now includes mobile – especially thanks to Windows Phone 7.

Yahoo, on the other hand, is struggling. While it still attracts large amounts of web visitors, including 81.2 million uniques on its news site, it is financially weak and its leadership is all over the place. In addition, with the rise of Google in the services race, and the popularity of Facebook and Twitter, Yahoo is struggling to remain relevant.

What killed the 2008 deal was Jerry Yang. The “Chief Yahoo” wanted more money despite being a high enough premium for shareholders, given that it had been underperforming. Months of negotiations continued before Microsoft walked away from the deal.

However, the better question is, what the hell does Yahoo offer Microsoft now? In my view, especially since Microsoft bought Skype, Yahoo has no purpose for Microsoft’s online strategy if it does buy it out. It already has a search partnership with them, and already has a much more successful partner in news in the United States – NBC News; as compared to Yahoo’s new deal with ABC News (in America). It will essentially become a white elephant for Microsoft.

Microsoft, if it does want to acquire Yahoo, has a bit of competition. Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce company, is looking to make its own bid with a couple of private equity firms. It’s a bit weird, especially when Yahoo itself owns 40 percent of the company.

The troubles in Yahoo don’t end. Jerry Yang, who told its employees that it will not sell Yahoo after firing its then-CEO Carol Bartz, has confirmed in a memo that the company has looked to advisors to help facilitate a deal to buyout the fledgling company.

In a leaked memo obtained by Business Insider, the company has hired investment bank Allen & Company to handle “fielding inquiries from multiple parties that have already expressed interest in a number of potential options.”

“We will take the time we need to select and structure the best approach for the company, its shareholders and employees.”

Yahoo’s troubles began when the company rejected a substantial bid from Microsoft to acquire them. That largely failed, after the Yahoo board rejected it and wanted more money. Then its value plummeted, and that forced Jerry Yang from his position of CEO to “Chief Yahoo!” – yes, they do have a position for him called “Chief Yahoo!” – and put Carol Bartz in place.

Under Bartz, despite the numerous closures and sackings, the company was still financially viable and even Bartz herself is reported to have told the board that it would take a long time to restructure Yahoo back into revenue growth.

Whatever Yahoo does, it needs to fix up its problem: where is it going. Google at least has a focus strategy to collect data to help its ads, and that means opening services in every corner. AOL has put its money into content – and that has largely worked, with the acquisition of TechCrunch, Huffington Post and Engadget, three of the largest publications in their relative fields. Microsoft also has direction in pushing more services online and connectivity amongst each other with its Live products, such as Xbox Live, Windows Live and Office Live 365.

The full memo, acquired by Business Insider, can be found below:

Dear Yahoos:

In our recent all hands meeting, we talked about the Board’s strategic review to help return the Company to a path of robust growth and industry-leading innovation. While our teams are working to evaluate the many opportunities by which Yahoo! can continue building on our success, all kinds of people have been – and will continue – speculating in the media about where that work is headed, so we thought it best to provide you with some additional context directly from those of us who are closest to it.  We don’t have specific news to share with you today, but we are committed to communicating with you directly from time to time – especially given the level of external swirl – so that you know where we are in the process. You can expect periodic updates from us and we encourage you to communicate with us as well.

At the heart of what we are doing is our belief that Yahoo!’s core strengths are not only relevant to where users are going today, but can serve as a foundation for the next phase of our company’s growth. Consider our strengths: we have 680 million users worldwide. We have nine of the #1 properties in the U.S., and we are a leader in display advertising. Our brand is iconic – we are not the only ones who bleed purple. By whatever measure you want to use – engagement, quality of products and services, our value to our advertisers – we all feel that we have what it takes to succeed. Also, our Asia assets remain one of our top priorities and we continue to work well with the teams there. As you may have seen, Alibaba Group has just announced a liquidity event for its employees that reflects a continued appreciation in its value, and therefore of the value of our stake.

What Yahoo! needs to do better – and we’ve talked about this – is accelerate innovation, reignite inspiration, and give our users what they want now – great content that is engaging and easy-to-use on any device and provides an experience in which they can participate and contribute. Perhaps most importantly, we need to anticipate what they will want next. That is the path to enhancing the value of Yahoo! for all of its stakeholders, including its users, customers, shareholders, partners and Yahoos everywhere. Our strategic review is designed to help us map out the best way to achieve that.

At this point, we cannot offer many specifics about the Board’s review; we’ve just gotten started. You should know that the entire Board and management team are fully aligned and unanimous in their views regarding the scope of this work. Allen & Company was a logical choice to help us in this review, because they have been one of our advisers for some time, and this is familiar territory for them. Achieving success in our sector is intrinsic to what they do for a living, and they will be constructive partners.

Our advisers are working with us to develop ideas that we will pursue proactively.  At the same time, they are fielding inquiries from multiple parties that have already expressed interest in a number of potential options. We will take the time we need to select and structure the best approach for the company, its shareholders and employees.

In addition, as we announced previously, the Board has commenced a search for a permanent Chief Executive Officer. That process also continues.

When we have updates that we can share we will do so. There will be plenty of rumors and speculation as different parties try to advance their agendas in the media – but it is important that we not be distracted by the rumors and speculation.

You are instrumental to the success of our business – we can’t do it without you. While we will move with a sense of urgency, this process will take time. Months, not weeks. We know that’s a lot of potential distraction, but we believe it will be worth the wait. We are forging a path to a next phase of growth for Yahoo! that feels like our best days: fun, full of possibility, and always in search of how to deliver the new thing people want from us. Together, we can write the next great chapter in the Yahoo! story and secure our place as one of those rarities: an internet company that endures.

Jerry                           Roy                         David

Carol Bartz, the now former CEO of Yahoo (Image: Yahoo)

Yahoo’s CEO Carol Bartz, who took over three years ago from founder Jerry Yang, has been sacked “effective immediatelty” as the company continues to struggle from rivals Google, Microsoft’s Bing and AOL.

Bartz was made CEO in 2009 after Yang’s poor handling of a substantial bid from Microsoft – believing it was too low. She will be replaced by Chief Financial Officer Tim Morse, until someone is found to be their permanent chief executive.

She was reportedly fired on the phone by Chairman Roy Bostock.

“I am very sad to tell you that I’ve just been fired over the phone by Yahoo’s chairman of the board,” she wrote in an email to all staff. “It has been my pleasure to work with all of you, and I wish you only the best going forward.”

According to VentureBeat, Bartz, seen as a saviour to Yahoo in 2008, has been very unpopular with employees - with a survey from Glassdoor showing that two thirds had no confidence in her; and evidence on Twitter from former and current Yahoo employees. When she was first installed, she had an approval rating of 90 percent. Under her tenure, however, she has shut or sold off several properties that were underpeforming including GeoCities and Delicious, and axed thousands of jobs.

In addition, she recently pulled Yahoo from the search business - which was their bread and butter – and replaced it with using technology from Microsoft’s Bing. Bing has since taken over Yahoo to become second-most used search engine – a very big feat for Microsoft after MSN and Windows Live Search have failed to overtake the faltering company.

The big question is now who will replace Bartz and actually help Yahoo improve its standing. The company’s biggest asset is now content production – but even that, it remains behind AOL (who bought the Huffington Post in order to strength its own strong lineup of content) and other providers. However, it still lacks direction as it tries to be so many things, like it used to.

The new CEO will have to set a direction, and fast before Yahoo either collapses or faces a takeover bid.

Microsoft’s famed Windows Live Messenger has a market share of 40.67%, while just-bought Skype controls 27.39% of the worldwide IM share. With Yahoo Messenger controlling 15.11% of the market, the three of them now control 80% of the market.

Why is the latter statistic important? Well, Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger can now interact with each other.

Google, however, comes in fifth with 3.56% of the worldwide market; while ICQ and AIM have 2.01% and 0.73% shares respectively.

Remember, these numbers are worldwide numbers. OPSWAT has not broken down the numbers per region. In addition, they only take into account the number of clients, so Facebook are exempt from this number. However, it does give an insight to how many accounts and how many people are actively using the service.

However, it does show that Microsoft’s success is heavily reliant on its past. How do you think Hotmail still remains to be the number one mail provider? Windows Live has started to compete strongly with SkyDrive – with 25GB of storage for free, among other services. But is this enough to help Windows Live to continue being strong, or is it better that all of them are individual?

Carol Bartz, CEO of Yahoo, is selling Delicious. But to whom?

Yahoo is being reported to have found a buyer for the popular bookmarking service Delicious for US$1 million. Rumours by British newspaper The Guardian are saying that the leading bid is being headed up by StumbleUpon, another web link sharing site.

The site, bought by Yahoo in 2005, was supposed to revitalise Yahoo after being integrated to the brand. That never happened, and Delicious and other acquisitions, such as Flickr, kept most of its own identity – sans the integration of Yahoo ID.

The site was identified to be on the “sunset” list of Yahoo properties that were leaked out in mid-December as part of an overhaul initiated by chief executive Carol Bartz, hoping to reverse a trend in Yahoo and focus on its key assets. Delicious, still popular by many, was rumoured to be sold instead of shut down.

Others included MyBlogLog, Yahoo Bookmarks and Altavista – a 1990s search engine that was popular, and was the original maintainer of the popular Babelfish translator.

It has been understood that the talent behind Delicious has either been deployed on other parts of Yahoo, or have been fired by the company. Support staff only remains.

More censorship is coming to the App Store, Kogan makes the $1 million bet, and we see the insides of the iPad 2. Oh, and we have gone Charlie Sheen-mad this week after the release of the Gregory Brothers’ “Winning” song.

Since Tom (and James, but he never shows up) is not here this week, we get Dave Barranquero – some random person that Chris and Stewart know – as a guest on this podcast to cover for Tom. As well, apparently now we are powered by “epic winning”.

So listen in with your hot cup of tea and don’t forget to subscribe! Show notes are below.

DOWNLOAD MP3
Subscribe via iTunes | Subscribe via RSS

Shownotes

The Top Stories

Censorship coming to Australian App Stores
http://techgeek.com.au/2011/03/09/censorship-coming-to-australian-app-stores/

Government to censor iTunes app store
http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/smartphone-apps/government-to-censor-itunes-app-store-20110309-1bng2.html

Kogan places $1 million bet against JB Hi-Fi
http://techgeek.com.au/2011/03/07/kogan-places-1-million-bet-against-jb-hi-fi/

JB HI-FI: THE HIDDEN TRUTH
http://www.kogan.com.au/blog/2011/mar/7/jb-hi-fi-hidden-truth/

Judge gives Wikileaks Twitter Records to US Government
http://techgeek.com.au/2011/03/12/judge-gives-wikileaks-twitter-records-to-us-government/

iPad 2 Wi-Fi Teardown
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPad-2-Wi-Fi-Teardown/5071/1

Woman gets $900 for spot in iPad 2 line
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20042285-71.html

In The Loop

iOS 4.3 breaks schedule, availablenow
http://techgeek.com.au/2011/03/10/ios-4-3-breaks-schedule-available-now/

iPhone 5 Design Images with Larger Edge-to-Edge Screen?
http://www.macrumors.com/2011/03/10/iphone-5-design-images-with-larger-screen/

iPads could replace paper charts in airline cockpits
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-31747_7-20040322-243.html

Stewart’s Briefs (1)

Mark Zuckerberg’s Puppy is His Newest Facebook Friend
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2381628,00.asp

Pr0n stars to demo against .xxx
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03/09/stars_demo_against_domains/

Mitsubishi Electric develops Elevator with Voice Recognition and Wheelchair user detection.
http://en.akihabaranews.com/87637/healthcare/mitsubishi-electric-develops-elevator-with-voice-recognition-and-wheelchair-user-detection

In Other News

Nokia pays Elop over $6 million to move from Microsoft
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/11/us-nokia-ceo-idUSTRE72A2L420110311

Microsoft Nokia: 5 year deal, royalties, billion dollar payments, not signed yet-Businessweek
http://www.liveside.net/2011/03/07/microsoft-nokia-5-year-deal-royalties-billion-dollar-payments-not-signed-yet-businessweek/

Anyone who visited GeoHot’s PS3 jailbreak website is now part of Sony lawsuit
http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/anyone-who-visited-geohots-ps3-jailbreak-website-is-now-part-of-sony-lawsuit/

Hacker discovers PS3 3.56 exploit, will not release
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2011/03/07/hacker_discovers_ps3_3_56_exploit_will_not_release

Microsoft seeks to toss Apple ‘App Store’ brief, says font too small
http://www.geekwire.com/2011/microsoft-seeks-toss-apple-app-store-font-big

How Apple and Microsoft ended up arguing about font size
http://thenextweb.com/apple/2011/03/10/how-apple-and-microsoft-ended-up-arguing-about-font-size/

Breaking: Zynga files for trademark on the word “Ville” in Europe
http://fusible.com/2011/03/breaking-zynga-files-for-trademark-on-the-word-ville-in-europe/

Twitter tells developers: No more Twitter Clients
http://techgeek.com.au/2011/03/12/twitter-tells-developers-no-more-twitter-clients/

Unconfirmed reports that Yahoo has sold Delicious for $5 Million+
http://thenextweb.com/industry/2011/03/11/unconfirmed-reports-that-delicious-has-been-sold-for-5-million/

Teewee is identical Twitter for iPhone… without the Quickbar
http://thenextweb.com/apps/2011/03/07/teewee-is-identical-twitter-for-iphone-without-the-quickbar/

Confirmed: Angry Birds To Launch On Facebook In May
http://thenextweb.com/eu/2011/03/08/confirmed-angry-birds-to-launch-on-facebook-in-may/

S.N.A.K. is a keyboard perfect for Facebook addicts
http://dvice.com/archives/2011/03/snak-is-a-keybo.php

Pwnage Playtime

PlayStation Plus Members get Cloud Game Saving in PS3 Firmware 3.60
http://techgeek.com.au/2011/03/10/playstation-plus-members-get-cloud-game-saving-in-ps3-firmware-3-60/

Sony NGP UK release date: 11 November?
http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/handhelds/sony-ngp-uk-release-date-11-november–935154

Xbox 360 Now Outselling Wii on 12-Month Basis
http://www.industrygamers.com/news/xbox-360-now-outselling-wii-on-12-month-basis/

Microsoft Hiring Engineers For Next Xbox
http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-hiring-engineers-for-next-xbox-2011-3

Stewart’s Briefs (2)

Honeycomb ported to HTC HD2 – no more WinMo for you!
http://techgeek.com.au/2011/03/07/honeycomb-ported-to-htc-hd2-no-more-winmo-for-you/

Google Chrome Gets Updates: New Interfaces, Faster Browsing
http://mashable.com/2011/03/08/chrome-update/

Charlie Sheen-censoring browser plug-in is here
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20040766-1.html

Charlie Sheen – Winning

James Wilson joins the podcast again (for the last few minutes of the episode) with Terence Huynh, Stewart Wilson, Chris Southcott and Tom Solari in discussing the week that was in tech.

Don’t forget to download, subscribe and listen!

DOWNLOAD MP3 | SUBSCRIBE via iTunes | SUBSCRIBE via RSS

Show Notes

IPv4 reaches exhaustion phase, Asia Pacific to receive last two IP blocks
http://techgeek.com.au/2011/02/01/ipv4-reaches-exhaustion-phase-asia-pacific-to-recieve-last-two-ip-blocks/

Feature: Are Australian ISPs ready for IPv6?
http://techgeek.com.au/2011/02/02/feature-are-australian-isps-ready-for-ipv6/

The Daily iPad ‘newspaper’ launches, $.99 weekly or $39.99 per year
http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/02/the-daily-ipad-newspaper-launches/

Murdoch’s Daily: The Details
http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20110202/murdochs-daily-the-details/

Intel finds flaw in Sandy Bridge, halts sales
http://techgeek.com.au/2011/02/01/intel-finds-flaw-in-sandy-bridge-halts-sales/

Asus, Gigabyte To Replace All Sandy Bridge Boards
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/02/02/1929238/Asus-Gigabyte-To-Replace-All-Sandy-Bridge-Boards

Honeycomb is here: Google unveils Android 3.0, new Web-based Market
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2011/02/honeycomb-is-here-google-unveils-android-30-new-web-based-market.ars

Android Market gets a web store with OTA installations, in-app purchases coming soon
http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/02/android-market-gets-a-web-store/

Google accuses Bing of ‘cheating,’ piggybacking off its search results (updated)
http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/01/google-accuses-bing-of-cheating-piggybacking-off-its-search-r/

Microsoft: ‘We do not copy Google’s dick results’
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsoft-we-do-not-copy-googles-results/8557

Stewart’s Briefs (1)

Unix time to end in 2038
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem

Survey: 32% admit mooching neighbor’s Wi-Fi
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2011-02-04-wifimoochers04_ST_N.htm

Google Gets Record 75,000 Job Applications in a Week
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-03/google-gets-75-000-job-applications-in-one-week-topping-record-set-in-07.html

How China censors Egypt news, and why the story is so sensitive in China
http://www.boingboing.net/2011/01/30/how-china-censors-eg.htm

In Other News

Microsoft offers H.264 plug-in for Chrome, queries Google on WebM
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2011/02/microsoft-offers-h264-plugin-for-chrome-queries-google-on-webm.ars

Greater Interoperability for Windows Customers With HTML5 Video
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/interoperability/archive/2011/02/01/greater-interoperability-for-windows-customers-with-html5-video.aspx

Microsoft admits Yahoo Mail is devouring Windows Phone 7 data allowances
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2011/feb/01/windows-phone-7-yahoo-email-data-usage-excess

Verizon breaks first day sales record with iPhone 4 pre-orders — in only two hours
http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/04/verizon-breaks-first-day-sales-record-with-iphone-4-pre-orders/

The Verdict is In: CNET Review of Verizon iPhone
http://reviews.cnet.com/verizon-iphone

Apple’s share of tablet market slides to 77%, Android rises to 22% [u]
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/01/31/apples_share_of_tablet_market_slides_to_77_android_rises_to_22.html

Love, hate and hackers: PlentyofFish boss stews after personal files stolen
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/security/love-hate-and-hackers-plentyoffish-boss-stews-after-personal-files-stolen-20110201-1ac22.html

Alleged Plenty of Fish hacker speaks out
http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Alleged+Plenty+Fish+hacker+speaks/4213754/story.html

PlentyofFish.com Hacked, Blames Messenger
http://krebsonsecurity.com/2011/01/plentyoffish-com-hacked-blames-messenger/

200GB to 25GB: Canada gets first, bitter dose of metered Internet
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/01/canada-gets-first-bitter-dose-of-metered-internet-billing.ars

Hotmail launches accounts you can eat
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-20030574-75.html

Stewart’s Briefs (2)

Benihana Kuwait sues blogger for $18,000 over bad review
http://www.boingboing.net/2011/02/01/benihana-kuwait-sues.html

Sony sends DMCA notice to Github over PS3 files, keys, and tools
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/01/sony-sends-dmca-notice-to-github-over-ps3-files-master-key.ars

T-Pain gets Facebook tattoo
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20030005-71.html

Appeals Court: free Internet porn isn’t unfair competition to pay sites
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/02/appeals-court-free-porn-isnt-unfair-competition-to-pay-sites.ars

The large job culls will significantly affect its international operations as the company tries to rebrand itself from a social network to an entertainment hub. It’s Chinese operations is also being reported to have laid off 30 of its staff – two-thirds of its staff presence in the country – and its CEO has left the company.

The company’s “legacy businesses and products” are said to be the main targets, according to All Things D‘s Liz Gannes. The cull may be trying to make MySpace into something worth buying, as it is trying to sell the company to Yahoo – who is also trying to rebrand itself after search.

Plans for a large jobs cull is nothing new, with rumours in December hinting of it, with numbers as high of 70 percent of its employees.

2010. What a year to end a decade. From political uncertainty in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom, the leaking of important US documents – from Afghanistan to diplomatic cables – and even a possible upheaval of our classification system to finally allow a R18+ rating in Australia, bringing it in line with other western nations.

We got more information about the new National Broadband Network, while we also saw a big shift in the media landscape in all forms – online, on print, on radio and on television.

Here are some of the highlights of the year that was.

No more HD, Say hello to 3D

GEM, as well as 7mate and ABC News 24, were launched at the expense of a HD simulcast of the main channel.

In 2010, we saw a big shift in the media. We saw more stations pick up digital radio as a way to broadcast alternative content; and we also saw the launch of three new channels – ABC News 24, GEM and 7mate – at the expense of the HD simulcasts of the main channel, leaving many shows no longer able to be viewed in HD until the digital switchover is finished or when the stations get more spectrum.

And after a long wait, community television finally got onto the digital platform, meaning shows that target a niche are still able to broadcast in future years. They can only, and most likely will only do, broadcast one channel with no HD simulcast.

The television networks also flirted with 3D television – capitalising on the success of Avatar. Several matches of the World Cup in South Africa, and both the NRL and AFL grand finals were broadcast in 3D after ACMA gave trial licenses to broadcast on channel 40, despite the fact that a majority of Australians don’t have a 3D-capable television set.

Changing the online game-plan

Fairfax launches its online video platform. Also launched were Nine's FIXplay and Seven's PLUS7.

Our television industry have also finally caught up on the internet with the launch of their catch up services, with Seven and Nine finally releasing theirs (PLUS7 and FixPlay respectively) and Ten revamping theirs. The ABC, however, leads in the digital world with the increasing ways of getting ABC iview, such as their iPad application or on PlayStation 3, while also providing additional archived content to other services, such as Fairfax and Seven’s PLUS7 service.

We also saw the introduction of the print media changing their online and mobile strategy, with all the major newspapers offering their own iPad applications – to take advantage of the screen size and offer more content outside of their paper’s websites. And thanks to the In App Purchases in iOS 4, papers were now able to charge subscriptions to use their app – with Fairfax and News Corp’s The Australian taking full advantage.

Internationally, we saw the introduction of paywalls in order to increase revenue from dwindling subscription and advertising revenue. News Corp’s UK newspaper The Times took its site behind a paywall, charging about £2 for a week’s access, as part of an experiment to see if such a thing would work; while the New York Times announced that it would be charging frequent readers rather than those who skim through the website. Other papers have opted to offer additional content behind a subscription paywall, rather than closing their site off, while others, such as The Guardian, have opted to continue the existing model.

The Year of the Leaks

Julian Assange, founder and spokeman for Wikileaks.

2010 will no certainly be known for its leaks – most importantly, Wikileaks. The site created four of the major headlines, and used the “old” media in order to strengthen not only the credibility of the leaks but the importance of new and old media working together to deliver a scoop. The first leak, Collateral Murder, brought the attention of the media by showing the US army killing a Reuters journalist in Iraq; while the second and third leaks brought the attention of the military success and failures of the United States in Afghanistan and Iraq.

However, the final leak it released at the end of November proved to cause the most chilling aftermath. Cablegate, the release of diplomatic cables inside the US State Department, has brought on a cyber war between proponents and opponents of Wikileaks’ cause, while also some politicians and right wing media pundits calling for Julian Assange’s execution despite many of the international press, including the Australian press, calling him an icon of the free press – of publishing the hard truths. The Australian Government’s response has been a mixed bag as well, with Julia GIllard opposing of the leaks and Kevin Rudd could not care less.

But Cablegate has brought up a serious challenge in this new world: the freedom of information. Do the people have the right to know about what is happening in the world or should there still be secrets kept for the stability of the world? Should we limit the press’ voice in order to protect controversial secrets that could affect the image of a nation? The United States’ Congress is soon to be deciding on a law that would see some limitations on the press and its reporting of secrets, but is that good or bad?

All we know is Wikileaks has brought an uncertain future to the freedom of the press.

Censorship: Just that one step

Image from: gnackgnackgnack/Flickr (CC)

Back home, Stephen Conroy’s filter was put on the backburner in July – ahead of the spectacle of the election we saw in the following month. You know, that one that no one was deemed the winner and that the major political parties had to woo the four independents plus the Greens in order to form some sort of stable government.

However, that backburner was to be deferred until a review of what content was to be banned. But with the current climate, plus with the Greens and Liberals opposing of such proposal, and that the change requires an act of Parliament, don’t expect to see your internet censored anytime soon.

While 2009 was the filter, 2010 was the video games censorship regime – and the proponents and the opponents got equal media share in trying to get their views across. While the biggest opponent, former South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson, was no longer the biggest threat after resigning as the state’s Attorney General (despite a successful re-election campaign) – changes in the political landscape, including the dismissal of the Victorian Labor government (whose attorney-general was a big supporter of an R18+ game rating) means that we don’t know the new attorney-general’s view of the rating.

However, change was not to come as both sides to hear the fate of such rating next year, as the attorney-generals decided to delay making a decision till the new year, rather than in December.

The Privacy Dilemma

Mark Zuckerberg, Person of the Year (Picture: Time Magazine)

Did you know, Facebook’s privacy policy has more words that the United States Constitution? Yeah, its true.

2010 saw two important privacy-related stories. The first was Google’s collection of personal information thanks to its Street View cars in several countries, including Germany, the United Kingdom and Australia. Criminal investigations were conducted but eventually, Google promised to delete all the information in order to make sure the data was never to be used or stolen. However, while that was controversial, deleting the data also made headlines as Germany wanted the information to be handed over to them.

However, the biggest privacy story was Facebook. The massive social network has several privacy faux pas, with several changes that have made maintaining your profile’s privacy even harder despite Facebook claiming to make it clearer. It was also made worse when leaked instant messages revealed the extent of Mark Zuckerberg’s view of privacy during his years are Harvard:

Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard

Zuck: Just ask.

Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS

[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How’d you manage that one?

Zuck: People just submitted it.

Zuck: I don’t know why.

Zuck: They “trust me”

Zuck: Dumb fucks.

However, despite the privacy violations and the fact that its API is essentially an open hose to get into a person’s information without actually needing to be friends with them and if they have essentially made their profile open to the damn world, people still continue to use the social network – with a possible hint at expanding at its most difficult market yet, Asia.

But it seems that Facebook’s privacy violations, in addition to its growth, allowed Time to name Zuckerberg their Person of the Year. Still, congrats on the award. Please don’t release all my data to the data collectors.

Saying Goodbye

The KIN represented Microsoft's failure to find a mobile strategy, and was killed off just months after launch.

Google said goodbye to China this year and hello to Hong Kong after the company was hacked in January by the Chinese government and would no longer censor search results, after agreeing to do so in 2005 in order to get a foothold in the largest internet market. As well, Wave, the darling of Google’s projects and hopeful “future” of email, was shut down and its code given to Apache.

Craigslist also said goodbye to something: its adults services section. The controversial section, which was predominately used to promote prostitution, was pulled in the United States back in September, and in December was closed for international users. As well, P2P software Limewire got the plug pulled after a court forced the company to be shut down for distributing pirated content.

Yahoo, however, said goodbye to many things as Carol Bartz continues to reposition the company in the aftermath of the failed bid from Microsoft. Yahoo bid adieu to the search engine business as it handed over its search engine technology to Microsoft for its Bing in the United States and Canada, with that deal to extend worldwide next year. It will also be shutting down MyBlogLog, Yahoo Picks, Yahoo Buzz, AltaVista and Yahoo Bookmarks – while also trying to sell Delicious, after many rose in fury that Yahoo would shut down the service.

In the other news, Cuil – the supposed Google challenger – was killed off in July after incomplete, weird and missing results put people off the search engine, despite good hype; while Six Apart shut down its Vox blogging service, unable to compete with Tumblr.

As well, we saw the short arrival and quick death of Microsoft’s biggest flop since Vista – the KIN phone, which was unceremoniously dumped back to Microsoft by Verizon.

Oh, and Wired said the web was dead.

What was the most memorable moment of 2010 for you? Comment below!

Here’s what we are watching:

• A new iPod nano hack has been found, allowing the potential to support movies, TV shows, games, address book and even a calendar on the small device.
• According to Silicon Ally Insider, Yahoo’s CEO Carol Bartz has sold, killed or plans to kill a total of over $4.6 billion worth of acquisitions Yahoo has made to make the company more focused in one direction rather than having something in every area.
• A man is suing Apple after the iPhones and iPads were sending advertisers their personal information without users’ consent, after being revealed by a WSJ investigation. Also named are several apps makers, including Pandora, Dictionary.com and the Weather Channel (a bit of warning, the post is written by MSNBC, whose parent company, NBC Universal, owns the channel).
• 4chan was taken down after a DDoS attack took down the site. 4chan’s status blog proudly proclaims they have now “join the ranks of MasterCard, Visa, PayPal, et al. – an exclusive club!” It appears now that all the boards are working, but the front page is inaccessible.
• Zynga’s FarmVille has been dethroned as the most popular Facebook application in the Zynga lineup with its sister game, CityVille, having 25 percent more visitors per month than the farming simulator.
• USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies are working on a piece of software called FAAST – Flexible Action and Articulated Skeleton Toolkit – allowing you to use full body controllers such as the Kinect with actual computer games not designed for it, for example World of Warcraft. And that game was used to highlight the potential of the project.

Here’s what we are watching:

• Facebook has been valued at $41.2 billion, which is 56 percent higher than the past half year, making it worth more than eBay and Yahoo. Ouch.
• The Next Web has an interesting infograph detailing the growth of Google Chrome, at the expense of the previous darling of the web, Firefox, with a prediction that Chrome and Firefox could near parity within two years.
• Russia is set to transition to Linux and open source software with Vladimir Putin, prime minister of Russia, signing a document that will see its introduction to government agencies in Q2 of 2012. There has been some criticism on the plan, but none have the political weight to make some impact.
• IncrediMail, the company that was the biggest fad in earlier in the decade, has just signed a new two year deal with Google for ad revenue – despite, what TechCruch reports, a rocky relationship.
• And of course, patent trolls have decided that is the perfect time to sue with the next target – Skype. The plaintiff is Gradient Enterprises, saying that Skype violated its patent of “METHOD FOR DETECTING AND RESPONDING TO NETWORK NODE-LEVEL EVENTS AND A SYSTEM THEREOF.” You have got to be kidding.
• Facebook has been used to save a life, with a girl in Minnesota got a new kidney from a kind stranger via a Facebook post.
• Pokemon Black and White to be released on March 6 in North America. Europe and Australian release still pending.
• And for those wanting to know, the lead writer of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Jeffrey Yohalem, has an interview with MyDVDinsider with the movies that inspired the game – and there are some interesting choices.

Here’s what we are watching:

• Julian Assange is freed on bail by a London court. He vows to clear his name of allegations of sexual assault in Sweden and continue his work on the infamous site Wikileaks.
• After axing 4% of its workforce, Yahoo has announced the end for Delicious, the social bookmarking tool, it acquired five years ago as part of a refocus in Yahoo. ReadWriteWeb has a beautiful eulogy for the service. Also being axed are Yahoo Buzz.
• Facebook’s new Pages design has been revealed. While it looks like the same as the other Facebook redesigns, it does give you the option to “Switch Accounts” so you can act like your page or your profile.
• A credit card thief has pleaded guilty for uploading 20 songs to iTunes and Amazon only to buy those songs using stolen credit card numbers and pocketing the royalties. He managed 2,000 downloads between 2008-2009 before getting caught.

Shows from the broadcaster such as The Gruen Transfer, The Cook and the Chef and the ABC’s flagship current affairs programming will appear on PLUS7 alongside content from Seven’s stable of programming over its three channels – all for free. ABC Commercial joins Sony Pictures Television in providing archived content on the platform.

New series of programming, in addition to new programming from the ABC, will not appear on PLUS7.

ABC’s licensing of its back catalogue to Yahoo!7 is similar to its licence deal with Sydney Morning Herald-owner Fairfax Media. Similar to Fairfax Media’s licence, content will last only for one year.

The ABC’s push to offering its content to other platforms, rather than its own iView platform – which is arguably better than what Seven offers, technology wise – sees its commercial arm to profit even more as the ABC, unlike other broadcasters in Australia, is not allowed to show any advertising.

This also moves catch-up television services away from channel-programming to a more Hulu-esque offering, with content from different studios. NineMSN’s FIXplay is offering content not only aired on its stable of content from the BBC and Channel 4 in the UK.

All we need now is one site to watch content from all the channels – then we have our own version of Hulu.

Among the equity partners, Blackstone Group and Silver Lake Partners have expressed interest.

Both AOL and Yahoo have changed in the decade – turning from an ISP and search engine/directory to both content powerhouses – in particular, AOL, which has recently bought TechCrunch to bolster its technology news, and has several award winning journalists writing news and opinion on several sites, including Politics Daily. This is thanks to the acquisition of Weblogs Inc, in addition with their blogging platform.

This isn’t the first time that discussions of a deal between AOL and Yahoo has emerged.

The paper has provided two scenarios, as Yahoo has a 40 percent stake in Chinese-based Alibaba Group. One scenario sees several assets of Yahoo sold off to other companies, or AOL combining operations with Yahoo in a reverse merger.

PlayStation 3 users will now be able to catch up on Seven shows City Homicide, The X-Factor, Home and Away and Sunrise; as well as content from its digital channels – 7TWO and 7mate. However, unlike ABC iView – where almost all of its programming of primetime will be on-demand – not all of Seven’s primetime lineup is available as catchup.

Michael Ephraim, Managing Director of SCE Australia says, “with Plus7 now live for nearly one million PlayStation 3 owners across the country, Australians can enjoy more great TV content delivered not only exactly when they want to, but also subscription free in the heart of the living room.”

So check it out on your PS3 under the TV menu, and it doesn’t require a firmware update. Yay!

On the show this time with Terence, Tom and Stewart is James Wilson – after a long hiatus – and bringing his colourful (we’re not using the other word) commentary on this week’s tech events.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast via RSS or iTunes.

Download MP3 | Subscribe to our Feed | Subscribe via iTunes

SHOW NOTES

Apple relents on Flash-derived iPhone, iPad apps
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20015954-264.html
http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/09/apples-app-store-review-guidelines-we-dont-need-any-more-far/
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/09/09statement.html

Hole found in iOS 4.1 allows jailbreak
http://techgeek.com.au/2010/09/09/hole-found-in-ios-4-1-allows-jailbreak/

Dell finally ends Windows XP sales
http://techgeek.com.au/2010/09/09/dell-finally-ends-windows-xp-sales/

Facebook Passes Google In Time Spent On Site For First Time Ever
http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-time-facebook-google-yahoo-2010-9

Windows Phone 7 launching 11 October
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/35546/windows-phone-7-october-11
http://www.dailytech.com/Report++Windows+Phone+7+to+Launch+October+11/article19582.htm

Fairfax to charge mobile users to access content
http://techgeek.com.au/2010/09/10/fairfax-to-charge-mobile-users-to-access-content/

HDR for iPad???
http://techgeek.com.au/2010/09/06/hdr-for-ipad/

An instant impression of Google Instant
http://dvice.com/archives/2010/09/an-instant-impr.php

ATI FirePro V9800 runs out of ideas, shoots up with 4GB of GDDR5 and six mini DisplayPorts
http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/09/ati-firepro-v9800-runs-out-of-ideas-shoots-up-with-4gb-of-gddr5/

Nielsen survey shows high interest in 3DTV, low interest in paying for it right now
http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/11/nielsen-survey-shows-high-interest-in-3dtv-low-interest-in-payi/

Android Will Blow Past Apple And RIM To Become Second Biggest Mobile OS This Year
http://www.businessinsider.com/android-will-blow-past-apple-and-rim-to-become-second-biggest-mobile-os-this-year-2010-9

Google’s Utterly Mental Signing Bonuses
http://valleywag.gawker.com/5634212/googles-utterly-mental-signing-bonuses

STEWART’S BRIEFS

Tony Windsor and Rob Oakshott to hold media conference.
http://techgeek.com.au/2010/09/07/tony-windsor-and-rob-oakshott-to-hold-media-conference/

Office for Mac 2011 reaches RTM stage
http://techgeek.com.au/2010/09/11/office-for-mac-2011-reaches-rtm-stage/

iPhone 4 free case or bumper program ending September 30
http://techgeek.com.au/2010/09/11/iphone-4-free-case-or-bumper-program-ends-september-30/

FaceTime to meet Windows, OSX. 64-bit “iDVD-less” iLife due 2011.
http://techgeek.com.au/2010/09/10/facetime-to-meet-windows-osx-64-bit-idvd-less-ilife-due-2011/

Apple to open iPhone to more US carriers – but not the iPhone 4
http://techgeek.com.au/2010/09/08/apple-to-open-iphone-to-more-us-carriers-but-not-the-iphone-4/

Kno receives new funding for its humongous dual-screened tablet, still hoping to ship this year
http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/10/kno-receives-new-funding-for-its-humongous-dual-screened-tablet/

iLoveHandles turns nano iPods into oversized watches
http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/10/ilovehandles-turns-nano-ipods-into-oversized-watches/

Xbox 360 250GB plus Kinect bundle priced at $399 in US, £300 in UK
http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/08/xbox-360-250gb-plus-kinect-bundle-priced-at-399-in-us-300-in/

Grand Theft Auto Trilogy bound for Mac
http://www.macworld.com/article/154018/2010/09/gta_mac.html?lsrc=rss_main

PROMOTION: AlfaHosts is giving 20% off your first month if you purchase a reseller server (either US or Australia) with the coupon code “techgeekau”. AlfaHosts. Giving you the Freedom to Expand.

Users will be able to identify if Bing is powering their search results with a “Powered by Bing” graphic on the bottom of the search pages.

No timeline has been struck for other international markets, but the full transition is said to be completed in 2012.

However, one country in particular that won’t be signing up will be Japan, as it has gone to Google in order to power its search – but that is pending any legal challenges and regulatory approval.

Image from JVManna/Flickr.

Hotmail is going to get some improvements soon as part of a major overhaul of Windows Live (dubbed Wave 4), including some brand new features in an attempt to compete better with rivals Yahoo and Google.

A new feature is the ability to share photos and documents using web applications right in the email. Services like SmugMug, Flickr, YouTube and Hulu will be able to be seen with one click without opening to a new tab or window, while document editing is integrated with Office Web Apps on SkyDrive, similar to Google’s Gmail and Docs arrangement.

Cleaning up is also a breeze with the “sweep” option, cleaning up clutter with simple clicks without having complex rules managing your mail, while there will be filters to sort from unread mail to mail from groups and contacts. Also, following on from Gmail, all emails will be grouped together in a  IM conversation-style, while the mailbox has returned to a two-column design, not the three column design that is active.

According to the Windows Blog, other changes include how contacts and subfolders are managed, the storage on each account, multiple e-mail accounts, full-session SSL and new account protection features.

Also new is the integration of Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, allowing phones like the iPhone to push emails, calendar and contacts to phones. However, only few phones allow multiple connections – like the Pre – but many Windows Phone 7 phones should be supporting it as well.

Mobile users will also see a revamped mobile site, which will be more graphical and user friendly to current phones, including the iPhone, including have a quick preview of the message by hitting an arrow. HTML messages will also be seen, instead of reading it from text. Essentially, what you get on the desktop will be on the mobile site.

Images can be seen below:

Sounds similar to AOL? Hmm.

“Yahoo is on the verge of hiring more traditional journalists as it plans to aggressively beef up original content for its top verticals, including news, business and entertainment,” Mike Shields wrote.

“That identity has already begun taking shape as Yahoo has hired a handful of journalism veterans to expand on Yahoo News, including former WashingtonPost.com editor Russ Walker, the site’s new politics editor; Andrew Golis of Talking Points Memo, who is assembling a team of news-hungry bloggers; and ABC News veteran Anna Robertson, now Yahoo News’ director of multimedia and social media.”

Jimmy Pitaro, the Vice President of its Media division, said that this move is to add more “human editorial” talent to its Entertainment, Finance and Lifestyle sites after they heavily rely on aggregated content from numerous sources.

But is it worth investing after Yahoo has tried a few times to become an editorial content site? According to ZDNet, it even had a large business news group that had its own TV studio that provided news during Wall Street’s trading hours, before dumping the idea when the bubble burst. Then it reappeared in 2005, even hiring a person to run the division, before the 2008 layoffs that streamlined operations, but also cut down a lot of people working on its content sites.

However, the main important question should be: does Yahoo have enough money to support editorial content? It might, after new CEO Carol Bartz’s cuts, closures and outsourcing search to Microsoft’s Bing.

Only time will tell, but users are set to see the change later in the winter (or summer in the US), it will be using its own team to cover politics, according to Media Week.

A spokeswoman from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Vietnam has “specific regulations against computer viruses, harmful software and for ensuring information security and secrecy.”

Google said on March 30 that it had found that Vietnamese computers around the world were infected by malware after downloading software that would allow Vietnamese characters to work with a standard keyboard. While the software was not sophisticated, it has been used, according to Neel Mehta from Google’s Security Team, for damaging purposes.

“These infected machines have been used both to spy on their owners as well as participate in distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against blogs containing messages of political dissent,” Mehta wrote in a blog post.

“Specifically, these attacks have tried to squelch opposition to bauxite mining efforts in Vietnam, an important and emotionally charged issue in the country.”

McAfee also posted a blog post (also dated in March 30) that the people behind this latest attack “may have political motivations and may have some allegiance to the government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.” McAfee also said that they believe the attacks are a separate incident than the attacks by China that were revealed in January under the title of Operation Aurora.

In response, Google tried to convince the Chinese government to uncensor its results, before moving to Hong Kong in late March – making good on its announcement not to follow the culture of censorship in the country. Yahoo and Microsoft have decided to stay in mainland China.

Previously, searches for Falun Gong and the Taiwanese independence were controversial topics that were often censored by localised versions. Like Google, Bing China and Yahoo China opt in a similar practise.

China has quickly responded, via the Xinhua state-run News Agency, by saying the decision is “wrong”.

“We’re uncompromisingly opposed to the politicization of commercial issues, and express our discontent and indignation to Google for its unreasonable accusations and conduct,” an unnamed official who is said to be part of the State Council Information Office told Xinhua.

“Google has violated its written promise it made when entering the Chinese market.”

How it manages to do this is due in part of an agreement with the British regarding the handing over of Hong Kong and China’s “One Country, Two Systems” policy, where Hong Kong remains democratic despite the mainland being a communist country. Censorship in the mainland do not affect Hong Kong, and social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook are still accessible to people living in Hong Kong.

According to the Los Angeles Times, while Chinese users are likely to see the pages, clicking on the links are a different matter entirely.

It is likely that Google.cn, because of its redirect to the Hong Kong service, will be banned from China.