Google ramps up email defense offerings

SAN FRANCISCO -- Google on Tuesday began marketing new online tools for protecting email from spam and other problems as it continued to encroach on the terrain of software king Microsoft.

Google unveiled email security services built with technology from Postini, a start-up the California Internet titan bought last year for $625 million.

The software protects, filters, encrypts and archives email, and is compatible with Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes, and Novell Groupwise.

Google said subscription pricing for email security starts at $3 a year per user to "accommodate the budget of any business."

Premium online services that include virus protection and saving messages is priced at $25 annually per user.

"As threats rise in volume and complexity, and compliance requirements pile up, IT is struggling to find the resources to keep up," said Google director of product management Scott Petry.

"Now, Google can take care of this for you."

Google's new email security service comes as Microsoft is courting Yahoo with a $44.6-billion buyout offer aimed at combining resources to better challenge Google in the flourishing Internet realm.

Email security services are the latest additions to the Google Apps platform, which offers Internet-based computer programs including text, spreadsheets, and appointment calendars.

The offerings are part of a trend toward software as an on-demand service hosted "in the cloud," or online by an Internet firm, instead of being installed and maintained on users' computers.

US firm Salesforce.com, which specializes in "software as a service," recently topped a million subscribers and its chief executive Marc Benioff predicts annual revenues will pass a billion dollars this fiscal year.

Salesforce.com has a "strategic alliance" with Google.

Microsoft has built its fortune on packaged software installed on computers, but is shifting increasingly to online on-demand services as well.

Microsoft is hoping to bolster its position in the Internet market by buying struggling Yahoo, which has seen its fortunes sag while Google's have soared.

Yahoo's board of directors is mulling the $31-per-share buy-out offer from Microsoft, which is pressing Yahoo for a quick response.

Nearly 588 million people visited Google websites in December, while the combined total for Microsoft and Yahoo websites was 665 million visitors, according to industry tracking firm comScore.

Microsoft and Yahoo claim 15.7 percent of the worldwide Internet search market, compared with Google's dominant 62.4 percent share, according to industry-tracking firm comScore.

However, Yahoo is the world's most popular web-based e-mail service, used by 257 million people, and if combined with Microsoft's offerings would claim 77 percent of the instant messaging market, comScore reports.
By Glenn Chapman - Agence France-Presse

Yahoo takes it easy as IT world is jolted by Microsoft buyout bid

Yahoo takes it easy as IT world is jolted by Microsoft buyout bid

Melvin G. Calimag - Manila Bulletin

Shocked and stunned by a $ 44.6-billion buyout offer from software titan Microsoft, Internet giant Yahoo tried to compose itself the morning after the earth-shaking announcement by issuing a brief statement that didn’t reveal any hint of action it may take.


Microsoft, through chief executive officer Steven Ballmer, sent a letter dated January 31 (Friday in Manila) to the Yahoo board of directors indicating the company’s intention to acquire the Internet icon.

In a press statement released on February 1, Sunnyvale, California – based Yahoo acknowledged it has received the "unsolicited proposal" from the Redmond, Washington-based software firm.

Addressing the offer, it said: "The Company said that its Board of Directors will evaluate this proposal carefully and promptly in the context of Yahoo!’s strategic plans and pursue the best course of action to maximize long-term value for shareholders."

The Microsoft offer was made after the departure of former Yahoo chair and CEO Terrry Semel, who previously led Yahoo in rejecting a similar takeover attempt in February last year.

In that rebuff, Semel told Ballmer that the Yahoo board was betting on the "potential upside" of a reformulated strategy that the company was about to implement at that time.

Ballmer, in his letter, retorted that the plan obviously didn’t work. "A year has gone by, and the competitive situation has not improved," he said.

This time, Microsoft said it is determined to finally close out the deal, even posing a veiled threat of a hostile takeover in case the Yahoo board would again turn down the offer.

"Depending on the nature of your response, Microsoft reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo!’s shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal," Ballmer said.

Immediately after the buyout offer was announced, major news organizations such as the New York Times played up the significance of the buyout bid, making it the banner story in its online edition and devoting a special section for it.

The Times said Microsoft’s $ 44.6-billion offer for Yahoo is easily the largest takeover bid in the software giant’s history. It could also be the world’s largest technology deal ever, it added.

America Online’s deal for Time Warner, announced in early 2000, had a much larger price tag of about $ 112 billion. But some data-keepers, including Dealogic, classify that transaction a media deal, the influential newspaper noted.

Microsoft bids $44.6 billion to buy Yahoo

SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK -- Microsoft Corp. made a bid to buy Yahoo Inc. for $44.6 billion, seeking to join forces against Google Inc. in what would be the biggest Internet deal since the Time Warner-AOL merger.

In its boldest-ever acquisition move, Microsoft sent a letter to Yahoo's board on Thursday night to offer $31 per share in cash and stock, a 62 percent premium over the Internet media company's Nasdaq closing stock price that day.

Yahoo would give Microsoft dominance in Web banner ads used by corporate brand advertisers. It also attracts more than 500 million people monthly to sites devoted to news, finance and sports, and Yahoo Mail is the No. 1 consumer email service.

"Microsoft's wanted to do things that could build up its online business dramatically," said Pacific Crest analyst Brendan Barnicle. "This is going to be a big bet for them."

Yahoo said on Friday its board would evaluate the unsolicited offer. Its shares shot up 47.45 percent to $27.29, while Microsoft shares, which have a market capitalization of about $300 billion, fell 6.38 percent to $30.52.

Speculation of a tie-up has swirled in the markets for more than a year, as investors looked to Microsoft to team up with Yahoo against an ever more powerful Google, which owns about two-thirds of the global Web search market.

Cultural differences

But critics say Microsoft and Yahoo have very different corporate cultures and worry about a clash like the one that marred AOL's $182-billion purchase of Time Warner Inc. in 2001, which is seen as the worst merger in recent history, with many of the promised synergies never materializing.

The perception is that Yahoo, an iconic Silicon Valley company with a free-flowing, fun-loving attitude, may not fit in with the button-up, competitive Microsoft, the world's biggest software maker.

The two companies also have many overlapping businesses -- from instant messaging to email and advertising, as well as news, travel and finance sites -- but are both weak in the Web search market, which Google dominates.

Google has a 77-percent share of the global Web search market, while Yahoo is second with 16 percent and Microsoft is a distant third with 3.7 percent, according to comScore data.

"They have to do it because they've tried everything they can do to fix MSN," said Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.

But he added: "Google is running away with the search market and that's obviously the best part of the market. The likelihood that Google gets caught is slim to none."

Transformative or overpaid?

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer told analysts on a conference call the deal would transform its money-losing Internet division, which it sees as critical to growth, into a profitable pillar of its business.

"We have been losing money. Our plan here would be to not lose money in the future," Ballmer said.

Ballmer said Microsoft has had on-and-off talks with Yahoo for 18 months, but was told by management a year ago that the timing was not right -- in an apparent reference to Yahoo's then-chairman and chief executive Terry Semel.

Semel was replaced by Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang as CEO in June and resigned as chairman on Thursday.

"With the Semel roadblock now gone, there is reason to think this [merger] is now likely to happen," said RBC Capital Internet analyst Jordan Rohan, noting Yahoo is running out of options in the face of a weakening business climate.

"I think Yahoo is going to say 'Yes' to this offer or some offer," he said. "Neither company by itself really seems to pose an effective threat to Google."

Under the proposal, Yahoo shareholders can choose to get $31 cash, or 0.9509 of a share of Microsoft common stock. The deal in aggregate must consist of one-half cash and one-half Microsoft common stock, the software maker said.

Some analysts said Microsoft was overpaying for a company that warned earlier this week it faced "head winds" in 2008, forecasting revenue below Wall Street expectations.

"To me, the premium seems exorbitant, for what is a dwindling business. I personally don't see how the synergies of Microsoft-Yahoo are going to take on Google," said Tim Smalls, head of US stock trading at brokerage firm Execution LLC.

Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry said Yahoo is not worth more than $20 per share as its only worthwhile properties are Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Answers and Yahoo Finance.

But others said the price is low enough for rival bidders to emerge, noting Yahoo traded at $34.08 in late October.

"There could be a little more money on the table," said Laura Martin, an analyst at Soleil-Media Metrics. "The company is in play. Yahoo will not be able to stay independent. Other bidders will emerge before this is over."

Antitrust concerns

Analysts cited Comcast Corp., Viacom Inc., News Corp. and General Electric Co. among possible bidders, but they also said few had the balance sheet to compete with Microsoft or were as natural a fit for Yahoo.

Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith acknowledged other bidders could emerge, but said any attempt by arch-rival Google to acquire Yahoo would face insurmountable antitrust hurdles.

Antitrust experts said regulators would likely take a close look at a Microsoft-Yahoo deal, but as the two are dwarfed by Google, the deal will ultimately likely be approved.

Microsoft said the online advertising market is growing rapidly and expected to reach nearly $80 billion by 2010 from over $40 billion in 2007. It paid $6 billion last year to buy online advertising services firm aQuantive as a bulwark against Google's growing position.

The software company said it identified four areas that would generate at least $1 billion in annual synergies for the combined entity.

Morgan Stanley and Blackstone LP scooped the prize banking job of advising Microsoft on the deal, according to sources familiar with the matter, while Yahoo is being advised by Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Facts about Microsoft

Following are some key facts about Microsoft:

• 1968: Eighth-grader William "Bill" Gates is first introduced to computers and programming languages.

• Gates and schoolmate, Paul Allen, are inspired by an article in Popular Electronics magazine about the first personal computer, the Altair 8800, to develop a version of the Basic programming language for the PC.

• 1973: Gates goes to Harvard University, where he lived down the hall from Steve Ballmer, now Microsoft's chief executive officer.

• 1975: 19-year-old Gates drops out of Harvard and co-founds Microsoft with Allen.

•1980: International Business Machines Corp. chooses Microsoft to write the operating system for the IBM personal computer, introduced in 1981.

• 1985: Microsoft launches Windows 1.0, the first version of the popular operating system.

• 1986: Microsoft went public on March 13 at $21 per share.

• 1986: Microsoft moves to corporate campus in Redmond, Washington.

•1989: Microsoft introduces the earliest version of its Office software.

• Gates founds stock photography house Corbis, which he controls.

•1994: Gates marries Melinda French.

• 1997: Microsoft acquires Hotmail, a free Web-based email service co-founded by Sabeer Bhatia.

• 2000: Gates and wife found the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a charitable organization.

• 2001: Microsoft enters the gaming market in November with the North American release of its gaming console the Xbox and competes with Nintendo Co Ltd.'s Wii and Sony Corp.'s PlayStation.

•2002: Microsoft and partners launch the tablet PC.

• 2003: The company starts paying dividends in January, with its first dividend at eight cents per share.

• 2004: Microsoft says it plans to return up to $75 billion to shareholders in dividends and stock buybacks.

• 2006: Gates says he will transition out of a day-to-day role in the company in July 2008.

• 2006: Microsoft launches Zune portable music player in November -- the first Microsoft-designed device in a market dominated by Apple Inc.'s iPod.

• 2007: Microsoft launches Windows Vista, the latest version of its operating system in January.

• 2007: Microsoft acquires aQuantive for $6 billion in May at a time the online advertising industry is rapidly consolidating and was its biggest acquisition till the Yahoo bid.

• 2007: Latest data as of June show Microsoft employs 78,565 people worldwide, of which more than half are from the United States. About 75 percent of US staff are men.

• 2007: Harvard dropout Gates gets honorary law degree from the university in June.

• 2008: Microsoft bids $44 billion for Yahoo.

(Sources: Microsoft Web site; MSN Encarta; Reuters stories)
Reuters

Microsoft, Google, Yahoo pay fines for Internet gambling

Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON--Microsoft, Yahoo and Google agreed to pay a total of $31.5 million to settle a government probe into their role in promoting online gambling dating back to 1997, officials said Wednesday.

The settlements marked the latest development in a US crackdown on Internet gambling, which has attracted a large number of Americans using offshore gaming websites.

The Microsoft settlement totals $21 million, including 4.5 million to the United States and a $7.5 million contribution to the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Microsoft also agreed to provide a $9 million campaign aimed at showing young Web users that online gambling is illegal under US law. Microsoft did not admit wrongdoing in settling the allegations that the software and Internet giant received payments from online gambling businesses for advertising.

Google agreed to pay $3 million dollars to settle similar charges and Yahoo 7.5 million and to fund an online public service campaign discouraging online gambling.

Neither company admitted the allegations.

The three companies could have been prosecuted under the Federal Wire Wager Act, federal wagering excise tax laws, and various state statutes and municipal laws prohibiting gambling.

"These sums add to the over $40 million in forfeitures and back taxes this office has already recovered in recent years from operators of these remote-control illegal gambling enterprises," said US Attorney Catherine Hanaway.

"Honest taxpayers and gambling industry personnel who do follow the law suffer from those who promote illegal online behavior."

Measuring web traffic and the pitfalls of web rankings

By Erwin Oliva, Leo Magno - INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines -- As with most processes on the Internet, web traffic measurement is evolving. If not scrutinized, web rankings may end up confusing or misleading users rather than enlightening them.

During the early years of the Internet, site owners installed “hit” counters to give people an idea of the amount of traffic flowing into their websites. A hit is generated whenever a file on a webpage is served. It is basically a request for a file from a web server. There are also “page views” which are measured when an entire page within a website is summoned from the server. It is a request for a file whose type is defined as a “page” in web analytics parlance. A single webpage could contain numerous hits. In the same vein, a visitor can call up numerous page views from the same website.

As website publishers, advertisers and marketers began looking closely at the web as a business, measuring web traffic became a sport, one that could be confusing or even misleading for the reader.

“The promise (and problems) of web measurement have been around since the web’s inception, but only now are large advertisers and marketers truly betting the farm on the medium and moving millions of dollars away from traditional media such as TV and newspapers. Measurement numbers are used by website publishers to sell ads, by ad agencies to satisfy clients, and by third-party measurement firms who package those numbers into high-priced reports," wrote media critic and journalist Mark Glaser in a Mediashift article.

Web analytics

Filipino search engine marketing experts agree that there is no single, reliable platform that could measure web traffic accurately. In most cases, figures generated are mere “guesstimates” of the real activity within a website.

“I don’t think there is anything out there right now that can be a reliable source for measuring the traffic of any website that you don’t own and control. Unless you have access to the web analytics platform being used by a website, you would not be able to properly measure its traffic,” said Jonathan Casuncad, search engine marketing manager at Netbooster Asia.

Netbooster Asia, which is part of the Netbooster Group, is a Philippine Internet marketing agency that has achieved both Google AdWords Qualified Company and Yahoo Search Marketing Ambassador status, according to Casuncad.

Third-party web-based tools such as Quancast and Alexa, however, have been utilized by companies to give people an idea of how much traffic a website generates.

Casuncad considered Quancast as “probably the most technically sound third-party platform out there today in terms of measuring a website’s performance mainly because they ask the participation of the websites that want their traffic and content measured.”

But without access to a website’s information and direct cooperation of the website owners, Casuncad said there is no reliable way for any third-party body to measure online traffic and website performance “at a level of relevance and accuracy that would be good enough to base business decisions on.”

Benj Arriola, another Filipino search engine optimization marketing specialist, said there are web-based tools like Compete.com that produce “some sort of web ranking but does not require any tracking code on your site.”

But like Casuncad, Arriola stressed that Quancast and Compete are not very reliable.

He said paid and free web analytics will likely do a better job in measuring website traffic since they require installed tracking codes. One of the more popular and free “page tagging” web analytics tool is Google Analytics, which require website owners to post codes on webpages for the purpose of tracking traffic.

Another way of measuring web traffic is looking at unique visitors, which is often determined through the user’s IP address.

Arriola, however, said that measuring unique visitors is also not fool-proof.

“Within big corporations on large wireless networks, different people could be running on the same external IP, thus multiple people might be visiting a page but it is recorded as a unique hit, thus it is not reliable for multiple visitors using the same IP,” he said.

All these tools and methods are still unreliable, Arriola said.

Alexa and reliability issues

One of the more popular web tracking tools is Alexa, which started surging in terms of usage as early as the 1990s.

Casuncad said Alexa today is “no longer as relevant as it was in the ‘90s when it comes to representing Internet surfing behavior.”

“Since Alexa can only track data on users who have the Alexa toolbar installed on their browsers, the data that it can show may be skewed and could not be an accurate reflection of how the majority of online users surf the website,” he said.

Arriola said Alexa’s numbers are not reliable at all. But it could serve as a “very rough trending tool of comparison.”

SEO experts unanimously agree that Alexa rankings could easily be manipulated.

“The Alexa ranking is mainly based on the traffic hits it gets from people visiting a site that has the Alexa toolbar installed. A simple manipulation could be to install the toolbar and keep visiting a single site that you want to have an increased Alexa ranking. Now, in the blackhat point of view, this can go even higher using scripting tools that will automate the whole process,” Arriola said.

Casuncad said that if a website owner has a significant number of people download and install the Alexa toolbar and require the same people to visit the website constantly, the website’s Alexa ranking would soon increase. His experience tells him that doing this consistently would produce results in three months.

A web publisher could then publicly claim that it is ahead of its competitors, when in fact that same data and ranking could have been artificially inflated by its own employees, similar to hiring dozens of monkeys who do nothing all day but click on the refresh button to boost their ranking.

An article in Businessweek makes a good point about Alexa: “Web outfits seem to agree that Alexa is flawed, but they continue to rely on it because the data are so addictive. Since Alexa’s numbers are free and available online, they can easily be plugged into a PowerPoint presentation or onto a blog, providing a quick-and-dirty way to get a competitive snapshot. Blogs cite Alexa as gospel, and its graphs are part of nearly every startup’s pitch to investors.”

Evolving metrics and SEOs

In article from Seattlepi.com, Internet giant Yahoo!’s decision to use Ajax to create “flashier” and easy-to-use web-based services affected its page views, a yardstick for the Internet giant to measure web traffic.

“Experts say the stubborn attachment to page views may also be keeping some sites from improving their usability,” the article said.

Arriola, for his part, said that measurement of web activity has become more specific. SEO companies do not only look at rankings and the number of page views and visitors, but also check so-called “key performance indicators,” or KPIs.

“KPIs can be as unique as a client wants it to be. It can be number of conversions. A conversion may be a sale, a lead, a subscription, or downloading a form. People who have hits and views as KPIs are more interested in branding. Those that have conversions as KPIs are more interested in ROI,” he said.

SEO has also emerged as a new way of boosting web traffic, as this new breed of web experts use every means to land websites on top of a search engine result page. SEO experts are now being hired to help increase a website’s page rank in different search engines like Google and Yahoo!

With more people using search engines like Google and Yahoo! to surf the web, search engine optimization experts use various keyword techniques to boost the ranking of a website in a search.

“I believe that search engines are still the best and biggest source of targeted, first time (unique) visitors. Since search is the second most popular activity online (first is email), it is a most valuable source of high-quality traffic. If you target the right set of keywords, you can dramatically increase your website’s unique visitors,” said Casuncad.

Yahoo makes its search engine more intuitive

Yahoo announced Tuesday it has enhanced its Internet search service as it continues its quest to dethrone Google, the market's reigning king.

Yahoo said new "Search Assist" software intuitively figures out what people are looking for based on words entered in queries and provides suggestions intended to help people pinpoint searches.

Audio, video and pictures available online are displayed on search result pages along with website links, according to the California-based firm.

"We know that consumers want a complete answer, not a bunch of links, and the changes we've made are focused on getting people to the best answer in one search," said Yahoo Search senior vice president Vish Makhijani.

A Harris Interactive poll sponsored by Yahoo indicates many Internet users suffer from "Web search fatigue," or frustration caused by not being able to easily find what they want online.

The study concludes that while search engines are used by nearly every adult on the Internet, only 15 percent of those people find what they are looking for in a single try.

Most people need to conduct three or four searches before being satisfied, according to the poll.

Yahoo's new search features are available to US users and will be rolled out in the United Kingdom "in the near future," according to the company.

Last week, Microsoft began phasing in a slick new version of its Live Search service in a bid to gain ground on leading Internet search rivals Google and Yahoo.

Microsoft's improved Live Search is available in the United States and will be in service globally by the end of October, according to vice president of search and advertising platform group Satya Nadella.

"This time, we feel we can claim we are as good as Google," Nadella said.

Google is the world's most popular Internet search engine. Yahoo ranks second. Live, which replaced Microsoft's MSN search service in 2006, has been mired in distant third place.

Search firms need to innovate to stay competitive, but face a hurdle when it comes to getting Internet users to break habits or switch loyalties regarding search engines, according to analysts.

Yahoo! to launch Internet café program to grow RP community

Yahoo! to launch Internet café program to grow RP community


By Erwin Oliva
INQUIRER.net


MAKATI CITY, Philippines -- Yahoo! Southeast Asia will launch a program for Internet café businesses in the Philippines to grow its community in the country, an executive told reporters Tuesday.

The Yahoo! program for Internet cafés aims to boost the Internet company's effort to build an "ecosystem" of users in the country, according to Jojo Añonuevo, head of Yahoo! business development of Southeast Asia, in an interview with reporters.

Añonuevo said that Yahoo! Southeast Asia will deploy a group of so-called Yahoo! Ambassadors that will encourage more Filipino users to join its community.

"You can't have advertising if you don't have a large community of users," the executive said, when asked how this strategy would figure in Yahoo! Southeast Asia's business.

There are now 12 to 15 million Filipinos living in the Philippines using Yahoo!'s services, said Jason Coates, Yahoo! Southeast Asia regional communications manager.

Noting that there remains a largely untapped market in the Philippines, Añonuevo stressed that Yahoo! is bent on going "toward more localization" of its services.

Yahoo! Southeast Asia announced recently in one online job portal that it was looking for an online community manager for the Philippines.

Coates said hiring a community manager for the Philippines is part of a global effort to bring more "relevant content" to Yahoo! Philippines portal, which was launched two years ago.

The executive said the online community manager will serve as an intermediary who is expected to be the eyes and ears of Yahoo! in the local community.

"With the Internet becoming social, it's the community that's going to drive it," he added, noting that several online community managers will be hired.

Meanwhile, Añonuevo revealed that there are close to a dozen Filipinos working for Yahoo! Southeast Asia.

Yahoo offers free texting service for Pinoy users

INTERNET giant Yahoo Inc. will introduce new features today for its free Web-based e-mail service, including the ability to send text messages directly to cell phones.

The service, which will take up to six weeks to roll out, will initially be available in the Philippines, the United States, Canada and India, the company said.

“We’re giving you the right way to connect at the right time with right person,” said Yahoo vice president John Kremer, whose two preteen sons vastly prefer text and instant messages to e-mail.

Yahoo doesn’t charge for sending and receiving text messages, but mobile phone users may be charged fees by carriers that provide their services.

Yahoo’s PC-to-text service seems to compete directly with the services provided by Philippines-based Chikka.com, but it was not immediately clear what impact it would have on the local company.

The changes to Yahoo Mail come amid fierce competition among providers of free, Web-based e-mail services. Yahoo and Microsoft Corp.’s Hotmail have long dominated the niche, but Google Inc.’s Gmail has grown quickly since its introduction in April 2004.

In February, Yahoo announced that it would provide unlimited storage space, and earlier this month Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft said Hotmail would increase free storage from two to five gigabytes. Time Warner Inc.’s AOL, the fourth largest e-mail provider, began offering unlimited storage last summer. Google provides nearly three gigabytes.

Sunnyvale-based Yahoo bills the changes as the most significant overhaul of Yahoo Mail since its launch in 1997. The new version replaces a one-year-old beta program and adds new features, including text messaging, a more comprehensive e-mail search engine and an easier to read and edit contacts database.

Yahoo is making its upgraded service available to the 254 million users of its e-mail service as it competes with rivals Google and Microsoft for “eye balls” that can be parlayed into advertising revenues.

Improvements include making the service faster and enabling users to have instant message conversations with people using Microsoft’s Windows Live Messenger service.

The new version allows users to click on a contact and then select whether to send that person an e-mail, instant message or text message. You could send an e-mail or instant message if you know the recipient is at the computer—or a text message if the recipient is on the road with a cell phone.

“This gives people the ability to reach anybody in their contact database anytime,” said Michael McGuire, vice president of research at industry analysis firm Gartner Inc. “For good or evil, it’s going to be much easier for anybody to get a hold of you.”

Users who do not want the upgrades—or whose computers are too slow to handle them—can opt to remain with the current version, which Yahoo will call “Classic.”

“Consumer inertia is a powerful force,” McGuire said. “You are not going to get everybody wanting to learn the new one.”

McGuire said the enhancements add value to Yahoo’s e-mail.

“These are all important features they have to keep adding to the platform in the face of Hotmail, Gmail, or whatever,” McGuire said.

“But this is more than keeping up with competitors. They have added value.” AP and AFP

Globe-Yahoo partnership targets over 40 M RP users

Globe Telecom, in partnership with Yahoo, aims to reach over 40 million Internet users in the Philippines via the Yahoo!Go and Yahoo!oneSearch services — Internet applications optimized for the small screens of mobile phones.


Yahoo, a leading global Internet brand with 500 million users worldwide, already reaches 85 percent of all Internet users in the country, according to David Ko, Vice President and General Manager, Connected Life Asia, Yahoo.

"Most of these Internet users are mobile phone users as well," he pointed out. "We want to bring Yahoo!Go to all 20 million Filipino mobile phone users."

Ultimately, "Our goal is to have over 40 million Filipino users gain access to yahoo via their Personal Computers or mobile phones."

"Yahoo is our partner, not just in business, but in nation building as well," added Gerardo C. Ablaza, Jr., Globe President and CEO.

"We both support GILAS - Gearing up Internet Literacy and Access for Students. Together with other GILAS partners, we are hooking up all of the Philippines’ over 5,000 secondary schools to the internet."

Yahoo! Go 2.0 is a suite of Yahoo applications including Yahoo! Mail, Calendar and Address book that customizes content from the Internet and reinvents mobile search.

Yahoo! oneSearch gives instant answers in a new format on the mobile phone. Search results are easy to read and expand consumer access to News, Images, Finance, Weather, Flickr, Web and mobile Web results with easy navigation to other web sites.

Under the new partnership, Globe will distribute Yahoo!oneSearch and Yahoo! Go 2.0 to makes it easier for people to conduct Internet searches in their mobile devices.

In addition, Globe is adding its own content in the yahoo search engines. Hence, subscribers can use oneSearch to look for listings of the latest ring tones and other downloadable content from Globe and its partners.

Furthermore, Globe is offering a fifty percent discount on browsing charges to make the Yahoo mobile experience affordable to subscribers.

Yahoo! Go 2.0 is now available for download free of charge from the myGlobe WAP site.

First launched in the United States in January 2007, Yahoo! oneSearch is currently available in 14 countries around the world — Canada, France, Germany, Indonesia, India, Italy, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States and Vietnam.

The service will soon be available in Korea and Taiwan as well.

By EMMIE V. ABADILLA - Manila Bulletin