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Google Desktop Search Goes Corporate

2005-05-18T13:44:00.000+01:00

New Desktop Search Application Offers Administrative Controls and Integration with IBM Lotus Notes

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - May 18, 2005 - Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced Google Desktop Search for Enterprise . This free downloadable application enables companies to provide employees with the ability to search for information on their computers with the same quality experience they've come to expect from Google.com. Based on Google's popular desktop search application for consumers, Google Desktop Search for Enterprise adds new enterprise-level security, configuration and deployment controls, as well as the ability to search the full text of IBM Lotus Notes messages.

"Finding information quickly in business is more than a convenience – it's a necessity," said Dave Girouard, general manager of Google's enterprise business. "With the addition of Google Desktop Search for Enterprise, businesses of all sizes can offer their employees one-stop Google search for the desktop, intranet, or web."

Through a collaborative effort between Google and IBM, the new Google Desktop Search for Enterprise provides simple, fast search across Lotus Notes messages.

"E-mail has evolved beyond messaging into a tool where people manage their activities and store critical business information," said Ken Bisconti, vice president of Workplace, Portal and Collaboration Software, IBM. "With Google Desktop Search for the Enterprise , we are giving more than 118 million Lotus Notes users greater flexibility in searching for critical business information stored on their desktop."

Google Desktop Search for Enterprise delivers high quality search results, one-stop search, simple deployment and a series of new features designed specifically to meet the needs of corporate environments.

One-Stop Searching for Employees
Search desktop files, the corporate intranet and global Internet all from one search box
Instantly find vital corporate email, files, web history, even instant messages
View web pages visited, even when not online
Centralized Administration and Security for the Enterprise
Administer control of all configuration settings. For example, restrict the indexing of secure sites, specific file types, or particular domains
Test and validate new software versions before deploying
Support for index encryption to protect the search index from unauthorized access
Easy Deployment for Everyone
Free download and unlimited, enterprise-wide use
Easy centralized deployment via the industry-standard installer
Centrally managed software update administration
In addition to Lotus Notes, Google Desktop Search is the first desktop search tool to access the full text of a user's web page history and the only one to search AOL instant messages. Google works with most popular email clients, most popular file types (including text, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, MP3, image, audio, and video files) and web pages viewed using popular browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Mozilla and Netscape).

Integration with Google Search Appliance
Google Desktop Search for Enterprise also offers full integration with the Google Search Appliance and Google Mini to deliver search results and convenient one-stop-searching from the desktop, intranet and Google.com.
Google Desktop Search for Enterprise is free and available at http://desktop.google.com/enterprise/. An optional premium support package is available, which includes access to information and assistance from Google experts, guaranteed response time on requests, and escalation for critical issues.

Google Announces Record Revenues for the First Quarter of Fiscal 2005

2005-04-21T13:43:00.000+01:00

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - April 21, 2005 - Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) today announced financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2005.

"This was a very strong quarter for Google. We continue to execute well and we have been able to take full advantage of the growth in online advertising" said Eric Schmidt, Google chief executive officer. "In addition, we performed well across our operations with our engineering and product teams delivering dozens of new products and features for Google users around the world."

Google reported record revenues of $1.256 billion for the quarter ended March 31, 2005, up 93% year over year. Google reports its revenues, consistent with GAAP, on a gross basis without deducting traffic acquisition costs or TAC, the portion of revenues shared with partners.

Income from operations, on a GAAP basis, was $443 million, or 35.2% of revenues for the quarter ended March 31, 2005 compared to $155 million or 23.8% of revenues for the first quarter of 2004.

Income from operations includes a $49 million non-cash, stock-based compensation charge compared to a $76 million non-cash, stock-based compensation charge in the prior year’s first quarter.

Net income on a GAAP basis for the quarter ended March 31, 2005 was computed based on the following income statement or condensed income statement line items. Revenues of $1.256 billion less TAC of $462 million, less both other costs and expenses before stock-based compensation of $303 million and stock-based compensation of $49 million, increased by other income of $14 million and then reduced by a provision for income taxes of $87 million.

Net income on a GAAP basis in the first quarter of 2005 was $369 million or $1.29 per share on a basis of a diluted 286.6 million weighted average shares outstanding. This compared to net income for the first quarter of 2004 of $64 million or $0.24 per share on a basis of a diluted 264.2 million weighted average shares outstanding.

Some Wall Street analysts use non-GAAP measures to analyze our operating results. For instance, they may subtract TAC of $462 million from revenues of $1.256 billion to arrive at a net revenues amount. Also, certain analysts may arrive at net income before stock-based compensation by subtracting traffic acquisition costs of $462 million, other costs and expenses before stock-based compensation of $303 million, adding back other income of $14 million and subtracting our provision for income taxes of $87 million from revenues of $1.256 billion.

Net cash provided by operating activities for the three months ended March 31, 2005 totaled $530 million as compared to $208 million for the first quarter of 2004, an increase of 155%.

Adjusted EBITDA, which is an alternative measure of liquidity to GAAP net cash provided by operating activities (and is defined as income before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, the non-cash stock-based compensation charge and in-process R&D), increased by $293 million or 115% to $ 548 million (or 44% of revenues) in the first quarter of 2005 from $255 million in the first quarter of 2004 (or 39% of revenues).

Google Adds New Local Services to its Suite of Mobile Products

2005-04-12T13:40:00.000+01:00

Users Can Now Access Google Local and Driving Directions On-The-Go

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - April 12, 2005 - Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today released two new local services that enable people on-the-go to quickly and easily connect to the information they want from their mobile phones or wireless device. From local business listings to interactive street maps, users can now access Google Local information via a mobile web browser and driving directions using Google SMS.

"Whether people are traveling long distances or looking for a restaurant in their hometown, Google's new mobile services make it a snap for them to find what they're looking for--without the hassle of referring to paper maps, reference guides, or often outdated directories," said Jonathan Rosenberg, vice president, product management, Google Inc. "Google's mobile search and Google SMS services are important advancements in our goal to provide users immediate access to valuable information anywhere and anytime."

Google Local

When users visit http://mobile.google.com/local on their XHTML-enabled mobile phone, they can enter their search term in the 'What' search box and location in the 'Where' search box to receive results from Google Local. For example, if users enter the query [wifi hotspot] in the 'What' search box and [90266] in the 'Where' search box, they will receive Google Local results of wifi hotspots in Manhattan Beach, Calif. Currently available in the U.S. and Canada, this service enables users to find business listings and driving directions, view an area using Google Maps with zooming capabilities, and click-to-call.

Driving Directions

With Google SMS, users have another choice to access information on-the-go. This service enables users to send a search query as a text message to the U.S. five digit shortcode 46645 (GOOGL on most phones) and receive Google Local, Froogle, finance, weather, and movie showtime results. Today, Google added driving directions to this list. For example, if users enter the query [from jfk to 50 broadway new york], they will receive turn-by-turn driving directions as a text message on their mobile phone or device. Google SMS is available on most U.S. carriers. More information can be found at http://sms.google.com.

Google has been offering mobile services for more than four years. In 2001, Google Web Search was introduced via WML-enabled and iMode-enabled phones (Japan). This past year Web Search, Image Search and several advanced search features were introduced via XHTML, enabling more users to access Google's index of more than 8 billion web pages and more than one billion images from their mobile phones.

More information about Google's mobile products can be found at http://mobile.google.com

2005 Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship Winners Announced

2005-04-08T13:39:00.000+01:00

PALO ALTO, Calif. and MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – April 8, 2005 – The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology and Google Inc. today announced the winners of the 2005 Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship. The Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship was established to honor the legacy of Anita Borg and her efforts to encourage women to pursue careers in computer science and technology. The award is a $10,000 scholarship for outstanding female undergraduate and graduate students completing their degrees in computer science and related fields.

"Anita would be proud to see these young, talented women rewarded for their dedication and achievement," said Dr. Telle Whitney, President and CEO of the Anita Borg Institute. "Together with Google's support, we will continue to honor Anita's vision of finding exceptional women in computer science and technology."

"It is an honor to team up with the institute and continue Anita's efforts to support and encourage women in computer science and technology," said Alan Eustace, Vice President of Engineering & Research, Google. "Google was itself born of college research and we look forward to the achievements of these outstanding young women."

For the 2005-2006 academic year, the institute received 115 applications from students at 80 different universities across the country. Eligible students must be going into their final year of study at a US university or college. Selection criteria includes academic performance, letters of recommendation, answers to short essay questions and interviews with members of the review committee. After three rounds of review, the committee selected 23 finalists, who were then interviewed by phone.

We are pleased to award ten $10,000 scholarships to the following students:

Shiri Azenkot, Pomona College
Lucia Ballard, Brown University
Preethi Bhat, Carnegie Mellon University
Barbara Engelhardt, University of California at Berkeley
Susan Hohenberger, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Ariadna Font Llitjós, Carnegie Mellon University
Moriah McClanahan, Brigham Young University
Kristine Nagel, Georgia Institute of Technology
Nithya Ramanathan, University of California at Los Angeles
Jenny Yuen, University of Washington
$1,000 awards will go to the 13 other finalists:
F. Zeynep Altinbas, State University of New York at Stony Brook
Himani Apte, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Caitlin Holman, University of California at Santa Barbara
Esther Iserovich, New York University
Agnes Lo, Stanford University
Emily Navarro, University of California at Irvine
Irene Ong, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Bo Pang, Cornell University
Karolina Sarnowska, Mississippi State University
Gwendolyn Stockman, Carnegie Mellon University
Stefanie Tomko, Carnegie Mellon University
Julie Tung, Stanford University
Julie Zhuo, Stanford University

All 23 scholars were invited to Mountain View to meet each other, tour Google and participate in a workshop on educational and career issues of women in computer science. The day will also include discussions with Google engineers and executives, representatives from the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology and former scholarship winners.

About Anita Borg:

Though Dr. Borg lost her battle with cancer in April 2003, the technology industry continues to support her vision for a future where women's voices, ideas and spirits influence how and why technology is developed. Anita sought to revolutionize the way we think about technology and devoted much of her adult life to dismantling barriers that keep women and minorities from entering computing and technology fields.

In 1987, seeing only a handful of women at a systems conference, she started a modest email list-an "online community" before the term even existed-and called it Systers. Today Systers has 3,000 members from all over the world. In 1994, Anita co-founded the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront. And In 1997, Anita founded the Institute for Women and Technology to further increase women's impact on technology and the positive impact of technology on women. Today her legacy lives on through the lives she touched and the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology. For more information see: www.anitaborg.org.

Google Announces More Mini For Less

2005-04-06T13:38:00.000+01:00

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - April 6, 2005 - Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced that the Google Mini has twice the search capacity at an even more affordable price. The Google Mini can now search up to 100,000 documents for a lower price of $2,995.

"Content is dramatically increasing everywhere and it's no longer limited to documents, spreadsheets and presentations," said Dave Girouard, general manager of Google's enterprise business. "With more web pages, weblogs, wikis and other content, businesses of every size are having a hard time keeping track of it all. With Google, you can help your customers and employees quickly find the information they need."

The Google Mini is an integrated hardware/software search appliance that indexes all content within a company's intranet or public website. After an installation process that takes only a matter of hours, users can search for information just as they do with Google.com.

The Google Mini was announced in January and is currently used by hundreds of law firms, healthcare organizations, educational institutions, consulting firms, government agencies and other small-to-medium sized businesses to access and manage their information.

"Our attorneys are continually searching for information. The Google Mini helps them find exactly what they need, when they need it, using an interface they‘re already familiar with," said John Neubauer, Legal Administrator for Blitman & King LLP. "With the increased capacity of the Google Mini, we will now be able to include even more legal research in our index. This will help us leverage more of our firm's valuable intellectual property, making our attorneys more efficient and more responsive to our clients."

The Google Mini comes with one year of support, software updates, and hardware replacement coverage. It can be purchased online, directly from the Google Store with a credit card, check or purchase order. For more information, see http://mini.google.com.

Google Search Appliance Offers Larger Businesses More for Less
The entry-level Google Search Appliance now offers search of up to 500,000 documents (more than three times the previous search capacity), for $30,000 including hardware, software, and two years of customer support. Other versions of the Search Appliance can index 15 million documents or more in a single collection.

"The amount of content on Earthlink's Intranet continues to grow rapidly," said Jon Kerner, chief information officer for Earthlink. "This significant increase in Google Search Appliance document capacity will enable us to provide faster and more thorough searching for employees."

The Search Appliance provides enterprise-wide search across corporate web sites, intranets, databases, business applications and content management systems. For more information on the Google Search Appliance, see http://www.google.com/enterprise.

Google Agrees To Acquire Urchin

2005-03-28T13:38:00.000+01:00

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - March 28, 2005 - Google Inc. today announced it has agreed to acquire Urchin Software Corporation, a San Diego, California based web analytics company.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Urchin is a web site analytics solution used by web site owners and marketers to better understand their users' experiences, optimize content and track marketing performance. Urchin tools are available as a hosted service, a software product and through large web hosting providers. These products are used by thousands of popular sites on the Internet.

Google plans to make these tools available to web site owners and marketers to better enable them to increase their advertising return on investment and make their web sites more effective.

"We want to provide web site owners and marketers with the information they need to optimize their users' experience and generate a higher return-on-investment from their advertising spending," said Jonathan Rosenberg, vice president of product management, Google. "This technology will be a valuable addition to Google's suite of advertising and publishing products."

The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions. Google anticipates that the acquisition will close before the end of April.

Google Launches Desktop Search 1.0

2005-03-07T13:37:00.000Z

Extending Desktop Search to PDF, Music, Video, and Image Files; Supports Firefox and Netscape; Available in Chinese and Korean

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - March 7, 2005 - Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced the formal launch of Google Desktop Search, a free downloadable application which enables users to search for information on their own computers. Previously in beta, today's 1.0 release adds search over the full text of PDFs and the meta-information stored with music, image and video files. Additional enhancements include support for the Firefox and Netscape browsers, Thunderbird and Netscape email clients and new Chinese and Korean language interfaces.

"Google Desktop Search brings the power of Google search to information on the computer hard drive," said Jonathan Rosenberg, vice president of Product Management at Google. "It's like having a photographic memory of everything you've seen with your computer, right at your fingertips. We're proud to take Google Desktop Search out of beta, and we will continue to extend the utility of desktop search for users worldwide."

In addition to searching a wide range of computer files and email, Google is the first desktop search tool to access the full text of web page history and the only one to search AOL instant messages. Google Desktop Search can also be used to recover accidentally deleted or misplaced information. For instance, a user who unintentionally deletes a Word document or PowerPoint presentation can use the tool to find the text stored in Google Desktop Search. All results are accompanied by cached snapshots of each web page and document so users can access information even if they're not connected to the web or if a document has been deleted.

Google Desktop Search will also provide application programming interfaces (APIs) that enable software developers to create new and innovative applications using the desktop search product. Plug-ins developed with these APIs will be made available for download at http://desktop.google.com/plugins, enabling users to search new content types such as Trillian chats and the full-text of scanned images, such as faxes. More information on the Desktop Search APIs can be found on the web at http://desktop.google.com/apis.

Additional enhancements to Google Desktop 1.0 include a free-standing search box that users can place anywhere on their desktop; making access to desktop and web information faster and easier than before. In addition to enabling users to block HTTPS web pages, Google Desktop Search now also excludes all password-protected documents from Microsoft Word and Excel.

Google Desktop Search is available at http://desktop.google.com. It is currently available for Windows XP and Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 and above. It requires 500MB of disk space, a minimum of 128MB of RAM, and a 400MHz (or faster) Pentium processor is recommended.

VNU Business Media and Google Sign Deal for Targeted Advertising

2005-02-15T13:36:00.000Z

VNU to Show Relevant Google AdWords Ads across Network of Business Publications

New York and Mountain View, Calif. – February 15, 2005 – VNU, a leading global information and media company, and Google Inc. today announced the availability of Google AdWords advertisements on the websites of all of VNU U.S. and European business-to-business publications. The deal is VNU's first major joint US-European web partnership, featuring U.S. brands such as Adweek, The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, National Jeweler, Progressive Grocer, and Successful Meetings and leading European titles like Computing, Accountancy Age, Computable, IT Week. As part of the agreement, Google's targeted, text-based ads will appear on VNU's global network of professional websites through the Google AdSense program.

"Google's huge collection of advertisers offers the depth necessary to provide relevant ads that match the industry-specific content of VNU's titles," said Mike Marchesano, President and CEO of Business Media U.S. and Ruud Bakker, President and CEO of Business Media Europe in a joint statement. They added, "It is a benefit to our business readers to receive additional information pertinent to what they are reading."

VNU's business-to-business titles in the entertainment, media & marketing, technology and finance, retail, travel, performance, real estate and design, and food service and beverage industries now show Google's targeted ads throughout their respective websites. The revenue from clicks on these ads is shared between VNU and Google.

"VNU's quality business content provides another excellent distribution channel for our business-to-business advertisers," said Joan Braddi, vice president of Search Services. “Google continues to collaborate and innovate to bring business-to-business users, publishers and advertisers together."

Google Tunes Into TV

2005-01-25T19:03:00.000Z

Google Video Enables Users to Search TV Content From PBS, the NBA, Fox News, C-SPAN, and others

Mountain View, Calif. – January 25, 2005 – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced the availability of Google Video, a new service that enables users to search the content of television programs from leading TV content providers including PBS, the NBA, Fox News, and C-SPAN, among others. This announcement demonstrates Google's commitment to creating innovative technologies that provide access to a greater diversity of the world's information.

"What Google did for the web, Google Video aims to do for television," said Larry Page, Google co-founder and president of Products. "This preview release demonstrates how searching television can work today. Users can search the content of TV programs for anything, see relevant thumbnails, and discover where and when to watch matching television programs. We are working with content owners to improve this service by providing additional enhancements such as playback."

The Google Video beta (http://www.google.com/video) enables users to search across the closed captioning content of a growing number of TV programs that Google began indexing in December, 2004. Entering a query such as iPod will return a list of relevant television programs with still images and text excerpts from the exact point in the program where the search phrase was spoken. Google Video offers these additional search features:

Preview page: Displays up to five still video images and five short text segments from the closed captioning of each program.

Upcoming episodes: Shows when the program will be aired next.

Search within the show: Enables searching for specific words within a given program.

Program details: Offers program and episode information including channel, date and time.

Change location: Finds the next time and channel where a program will air locally according to zip code.

For television channels and content producers, Google Video can increase viewership by providing Google users with information on future airings of relevant programs.

"For more than three decades PBS and local PBS stations have pioneered the use of state-of-the-art technology to use media to inform, engage, entertain, and educate the American public," said Pat Mitchell, President and CEO of PBS. "Today we are proud to join with Google, a company that continues to achieve new levels of technical innovation with the launch of Google Video, a new service that increases the reach and impact of PBS content."

"NBA fans are tech savvy early adopters," said NBA Commissioner David Stern. "With our partnership with Google on the pioneering Google Video service, we enhance our ability to meet the needs of NBA fans, delivering to them content and information in a new and innovative way."

This early-stage release of Google Video does not include Google AdWords advertising or playback options. For more information, please visit http://www.google.com/video.

Google Releases Improved Photo Management Software to Organize and Share Pictures

2005-01-18T19:02:00.000Z

Picasa 2 Offers Editing Tools, Advanced Effects, Better Organization and CD Burning for Digital Photo Users — For Free

Mountain View, Calif. – January 18, 2005 – Google Inc. today released Picasa™ 2, free photo management software that makes it simpler than ever for people to organize, edit and share their digital pictures. Available at http://www.picasa.com, Google's new version of Picasa offers photographers of all skill levels easy-to-use tools that automatically organize even the largest photo collections on a PC and turn average snapshots into great pictures.

New and improved features of Picasa include:

Advanced editing tools – Fix pictures with more powerful tools, 12 photographic filter effects, color and lighting adjustments, red-eye removal, photo cropping and straightening.

Improved organization – Add captions, quickly and easily search across all photos on a computer, attach labels and stars for better photo organization, reorder pictures and clean up cluttered folders.

Backup capabilities – Archive photos from a computer to a CD or DVD, save photos on an external drive, and create gift CDs with personalized slideshows.

Customized prints – Print at home with standard sizes, or order photo prints by uploading pictures to Ofoto, Shutterfly, Snapfish, and Walmart.com.

Enhanced sharing features – Email photos via Gmail (and other email clients), upload photos to a Blogger blog, and send and discuss photos in real-time via Hello™, Picasa's free peer-to-peer software, available at http://www.hello.com.

"With Picasa 2, we've made it easier for people to find, organize, improve and enhance their photographs, as well as create photo CDs, personalized slideshows, desktop collages, and much more," said Lars Perkins, General Manager, Picasa, Google Inc. "Digital photos are an important and growing category of personal information, and Picasa is in line with Google's commitment to develop advanced technologies that further help users to find, organize and share information that's important to them."

More information about Picasa can be found at http://www.picasa.com.

Google Goes Mini

2005-01-13T09:09:00.000Z

Small Blue Search Appliance For Small-To-Medium Businesses, Now Available For Sale At The Google Store

Mountain View, Calif. – January 13, 2005 – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced the availability of the Google Mini, a search appliance that enables small-to-medium businesses to access and manage their information using Google search.

"We believe high-quality search makes business faster and more efficient, and that companies of any size can realize these benefits," said Dave Girouard, general manager of Google's enterprise business. "Whether it's an employee finding the information she needs to do a better job or a customer connecting with the right product or service, Google search can improve productivity, increase revenues and reduce costs."

The Google Mini is an integrated hardware/software search appliance that indexes all content within a company's intranet or public website so users can search that content with the same simplicity and relevant results as they can on Google.com. It offers significant benefits to businesses such as consulting firms, educational institutions, state and local governments, and non-profits, which include:

Fast, relevant search results

Unified search across more than 220 file types

Easy installation and minimal administration

"We were sold on the Google Mini after ten minutes. We bought it online with a credit card, installed it in a few hours, and it was live on our site within the week," said Scott Klein, Web Publisher/Director of Technology of The Nation, a weekly news magazine.

In addition to The Nation, DeAnza College, the law firm of Brown Rudnick and others have purchased and deployed the Google Mini. The Google Mini searches up to 50,000 documents and comes with one year of support, software updates, and hardware replacement coverage. It can be purchased online, directly from the Google Store, for $4,995 with a credit card or purchase order. For more information see http://www.google.com/mini.

Google Search Appliance Supports Databases, Goes International

Google also announced today enhancements to the Google Search Appliance, a product designed for larger enterprises. New improvements to the Google Search Appliance include:

Database search: Provides access to the valuable information stored inside company databases and delivers a comprehensive, unified search across structured and unstructured data.

Localized administration: Enables global enterprise IT managers to administer the Google Search Appliance in their local languages. Full administration is now supported in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Japanese and is automatically detected by the user's browser settings.

Third-party content feed API: Enables non-web accessible content to be pushed into your Google Search Appliance with a simple XML conversion.

Enhanced secure content access: Authorization API enables easy integration into existing access control systems.

SNMP monitoring: Monitors system health and appliance crawling and serving statistics via a standard SNMP interface.

For more information on the Google Search Appliance please visit: http://www.google.com/enterprise.

Yahoo! and Nextel Join Forces to Launch Yahoo! Mobile Internet Across Nextel's Digital Wireless Network

2004-12-14T09:16:00.000Z

Sunnyvale, CA -- December 14, 2004 -- Nextel Communications Inc. (Nasdaq:NXTL - News) and Yahoo!® Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - News), a leading global Internet company, today announced a new relationship to offer Yahoo! Mobile Internet -- a suite of Yahoo! products and services, including e-mail, instant messaging, games and news content -- on Nextel handheld devices. The availability of core Yahoo! services will allow Nextel customers to take advantage of Yahoo!'s wireless messaging capabilities to stay connected and informed while on the go anywhere on Nextel's nationwide network.

"We are excited to work with Nextel and give their millions of customers new ways to connect to Yahoo! while on the go," said Doug Garland, senior vice president, Yahoo! Mobile. "Our new relationship with Nextel and the launch of Yahoo! Mobile Internet across their network is further proof of Yahoo!'s appeal to our carrier partners, and we are pleased to continue to develop solutions that drive adoption and usability of mobile data services in the United States."

"The addition of Yahoo! Mobile Internet to Nextel's suite of wireless data services is yet another offering available on Nextel's mobile devices that enable our customers to easily send and receive information while out of the office," said Tim Dunne, vice president of digital media and business development for Nextel. "We are pleased to be working with Yahoo!, as it is a leading Internet company and one that our customers will find useful as they conduct business."

To access Yahoo!'s services, Nextel customers just log in to Yahoo! from their wireless devices to access their choice of market-leading content and services, including:

Yahoo! Mail -- The number one e-mail service in the country helps consumers stay in touch at home, work or while traveling

Yahoo! Messenger -- One of the most popular instant messaging services, Yahoo! Messenger allows customers to keep in touch with their "friends" by sending short text messages between wireless devices and PCs, and to see which of their friends are online and ready to chat in real-time

Yahoo! Sports -- A fast and interactive experience for sports fans. Users can keep up on breaking news and the latest scores for their favorite teams and sporting events

Yahoo! News -- Customers can stay informed while on the go with access to U.S. and international news, including top stories, breaking business news, and the latest from the world of entertainment

Yahoo! Games -- Customers will keep entertained with a leading suite of games with even more downloadable games in the future

Yahoo! Mobile focuses on extending key Yahoo! services beyond the desktop, providing an integrated PC-to-Mobile experience and making the most of the mobile environment.

Yahoo! continues to improve and innovate its offerings for mobile users and works closely with major mobile carriers around the world in order to deliver services to the widest possible audience.

Nextel is a leader in the digital wireless industry and offers a suite of products and services to help businesses raise efficiencies and provide mobile workforces with instant communication across a campus or the country. Nextel's all-digital wireless network provides exceptional sound and transmission quality, using state-of-the-art methods that deliver unparalleled Nextel services in Digital Cellular, instant Direct Connect® walkie-talkie service, Nextel Mobile Messaging and Nextel Online® Service. Nextel's exceptional coverage allows customers to run custom data applications for specialized industry segments from their handsets.

Google Checks Out Library Books

2004-12-14T09:12:00.000Z

The Libraries of Harvard, Stanford, the University of Michigan, the University of Oxford, and The New York Public Library Join with Google to Digitally Scan Library Books and Make Them Searchable Online

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - December 14, 2004 - As part of its effort to make offline information searchable online, Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced that it is working with the libraries of Harvard, Stanford, the University of Michigan, and the University of Oxford as well as The New York Public Library to digitally scan books from their collections so that users worldwide can search them in Google.

"Even before we started Google, we dreamed of making the incredible breadth of information that librarians so lovingly organize searchable online," said Larry Page, Google co-founder and president of Products. "Today we're pleased to announce this program to digitize the collections of these amazing libraries so that every Google user can search them instantly.

"Our work with libraries further enhances the existing Google Print program, which enables users to find matches within the full text of books, while publishers and authors monetize that information," Page added. "Google's mission is to organize the world's information, and we're excited to be working with libraries to help make this mission a reality."

Today's announcement is an expansion of the Google Print™ program, which assists publishers in making books and other offline information searchable online. Google is now working with libraries to digitally scan books from their collections, and over time will integrate this content into the Google index, to make it searchable for users worldwide.

"We believe passionately that such universal access to the world's printed treasures is mission-critical for today's great public university," said Mary Sue Coleman, President of the University of Michigan.

For publishers and authors, this expansion of the Google Print program will increase the visibility of in and out of print books, and generate book sales via "Buy this Book" links and advertising. For users, Google's library program will make it possible to search across library collections including out of print books and titles that weren't previously available anywhere but on a library shelf.

Users searching with Google will see links in their search results page when there are books relevant to their query. Clicking on a title delivers a Google Print page where users can browse the full text of public domain works and brief excerpts and/or bibliographic data of copyrighted material. Library content will be displayed in keeping with copyright law.

For more information and examples, please visit http://print.google.com/googleprint/library.html

Yahoo! Appoints Dr. Usama Fayyad as Chief Data Officer

2004-12-13T09:14:00.000Z

Sunnyvale, CA -- December 13, 2004 -- Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - News), a leading global Internet company, today announced that Dr. Usama Fayyad has been named the company's first chief data officer and senior vice president of the Strategic Data Solutions group. Fayyad will be responsible for Yahoo!'s overall data strategy, architecting Yahoo!'s data policies and systems, prioritizing data investments, and managing the Company's data processing infrastructure and analysis. He will be based in Sunnyvale, Calif. and report to chief technology officer, Farzad Nazem.

Fayyad's wealth of experience in managing and analyzing large scale data infrastructures gives Yahoo! a leading presence in the fields of data management, business intelligence, and analytics. His hiring is another example of Yahoo! actively pursuing the best minds in the scientific and technical communities, adding to an already impressive list within the Company. The analysis and management of data within Fayyad's group will enable Yahoo! to ensure customer satisfaction and develop innovative products and services that are essential to consumers' lives.

"Usama is one of the world's most accomplished figures in the field of data mining, knowledge discovery in databases and analytics, and we are fortunate to have him join our team," said Farzad Nazem, chief technology officer of Yahoo!. "He has a proven record of thought leadership, business acumen and technical innovation, and his talents will give Yahoo! an industry-leading data executive that will enhance our ability to manage data and put it to work for our consumers and marketing partners."

Prior to joining Yahoo!, Fayyad co-founded and led the DMX Group, one of the nation's leading data mining and data strategy consulting companies. In early 2000, he co-founded and served as CEO of digiMine Inc. (now Revenue Science, Inc.), a data analysis and data mining company that built, operated and hosted data warehouses and analytics for some of the world's largest enterprises in on-line publishing, retail, manufacturing, telecommunications and financial services.

Fayyad's professional experience also includes five years spent leading the data mining and exploration group at Microsoft Research and building the data mining products for Microsoft's server division. From 1989 to 1996 Fayyad held a leadership role at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) where his work in the analysis and exploration of scientific databases gathered from observatories, remote-sensing platforms and spacecraft garnered him the top research excellence award that Caltech awards to JPL scientists. Fayyad also earned several NASA awards, including a U.S. Government medal for developing data mining technologies that enabled new scientific discoveries.

"The opportunity to bring a disciplined, scientific approach to data technologies at Yahoo! was irresistible on both a personal and technical level," said Fayyad. "I look forward to creating a scientific environment at Yahoo! that will continue to attract some of the best technical minds in the industry, while working to apply that knowledge in ways that will benefit all of our businesses."

Fayyad earned his Ph.D. in engineering from the University of Michigan (1991), and also holds BSE's in both electrical and computer engineering (1984); an MSE in computer science and engineering (1986); and an M.Sc. in mathematics (1989). He has published over 100 technical articles on the field of data mining, edited two influential books on the subject and launched the primary scientific journal in the field while serving as editor-in-chief. Usama also launched and edited the primary newsletter in the technical community, and regularly delivers addresses and keynotes at government, industry and academic conferences around the world.

Google Groups Offers a Home to Online Communities

2004-12-02T15:06:00.000Z

New Features Enable Users to Start and Join Groups, Find and Share Information

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - Dec. 2, 2004 - Google Inc. today launched the next generation Google Groups on the 'Groups' link of the Google home page at www.google.com. This enhanced product enables users to create, manage, search and browse web-based groups, as well as subscribe to and track favorite groups. Building on the foundation of the original service that currently includes more than 1 billion searchable posts from the Usenet archive, Google Groups now offers users the ability to join and follow discussions among different groups, keep in touch with family and friends, and share information more easily.

Using Google Groups, people can search and participate in a variety of discussions. For example, someone looking to buy a new digital camera this holiday season can search for [digital camera recommendations] and find relevant posts from others about the best cameras to buy. A user can star (bookmark) this topic to watch and subscribe to receive posts from a group such as rec.photo.digital to regularly read more opinions on digital cameras. Similarly, users looking for advice on treating carpal tunnel or disputing a cell phone bill can find discussions from other people who have experience in these areas. In addition, family, friends, and official organizations like schools or community centers can keep their members informed via email lists and announcement-only newsletters through Google Groups.

"Google Groups enables users to easily gather groups of friends, acquaintances, and those sharing interests together, and communicate with them directly via email, newsletters and message boards," said Jonathan Rosenberg, vice president, Product Management, Google Inc. "These online communities connect people with information they care about, and that furthers our commitment to enhancing the online experience for Google users."

New features of Google Groups include:

Create groups: Create, join and search email-based mailing lists, and designate your group as public (anyone can read the group's messages on the Web) or restricted (only members can read, respond or start new conversations).

Dynamic conversations: Postings to all Google Groups mailing lists and Usenet lists appear within seconds and are indexed within minutes.

Enhanced user interface: Track and mark topics using the "My starred topics" feature, and view postings by message summary, title, or conversation view.

Email notification: Receive individual messages or read daily email summaries to participate in discussions via your inbox.

Easy searching: Users can easily search for information within a group or across many groups.

Relevant text ads: Google Groups displays only targeted ads that are relevant to user searches or the content on the page.

Google continues to experiment with new technologies that make it faster and easier for people to find and use relevant information. Currently in beta and available in English language only, Google Groups can be found by clicking on the 'Groups' link on the Google home page or visiting http://groups-beta.google.com.

Yahooligans! Names the Hottest Toys This Holiday Season

2004-11-23T15:12:00.000Z

More Than 185,000 Kids Vote for Their Top Toys in Third Annual Poll; Honda's Minimoto Maxii Miniature Electric Motorcycle Voted No. 1

Sunnyvale, CA -- November 23, 2004 -- Yahooligans!® (http://www.yahooligans.com), Yahoo!'s award-winning Web guide for kids, today announced the results of the 2004 Top Ten Toys poll. More than 185,000 kids throughout the United States voted and chose the Honda Minimoto Maxii, an electric mini-motorcycle that kids can ride, as the most sought-after gift this holiday season.
The annual Yahooligans! Top Ten Toys poll enables kids to vote for the one toy they really would like to receive this holiday season. The results of the poll are based solely on the wishes of kids and do not reflect the opinions of toy manufacturers or retailers.

"As one of the most popular Web destinations for kids, Yahooligans! is providing them with an easy and fun way to voice their opinions on the hottest toys this holiday season," said Craig Forman, vice president, information and finance, Yahoo! Inc. "We're also giving kids the ability to communicate and share their top choices with their parents and peers."

The original list of toys was provided by Toy Wishes Magazine, to ensure that the 30 toys provided for voting were tested and approved.

A new crop of toys entered this year's winning list, all of which had a distinct "retro" feel such as updated versions of dolls, tag, cooking, and stuffed animals. Favorites returning from last year include the Bratz Dolls with the Bratz Tokyo-A-Go-Go Dance 'n Skate Club and Furreal Friends with the Furreal Friends Luv Cub.

According to the third annual Top Ten Toys poll on Yahooligans!, the toys(a) kids hope to receive this holiday season are:

Honda Minimoto Maxii (Toy Quest) An electric-powered version of a Honda motorcycle that kids can ride. The bike reaches a top speed of 18 mph and can race around for 50 minutes per charge.

VideoNow Color (Hasbro) Kids can watch their favorite TV shows in color whenever -- and wherever -- with this personal video player. The portable device plays discs, featuring hits from Nickelodeon, ABC, and more.

Bratz Tokyo-A-Go-Go Dance and Skate Club (MGA Entertainment) This dance and skate club is a retro-disco dream world that includes a lit dance floor, revolving DJ booth, roller rink, lounge, working speakers, exclusive Bratz doll, and many other accessories.

Tamagotchi Connection (Bandai) A toy that encourages nurturing, Tamagotchi requires kids to feed and care for their cool critters that now can communicate with each other.

Laser Tag Team Ops (Hasbro) Kids can enjoy extreme-sports play and videogaming with these laser-tag sets. Each has a heads-up display system and tagger ID to identify the best player in every game.

Terrain Twister (Mattel) The Terrain Twister can twist and turn over any surface when activating Mattel's innovative battery-operated unit. Pivoting pontoons make it possible to plow over grass, sand, water, and more for unstoppable R/C fun.

Hershey's S'mores Maker (Spin Master) Children can enjoy the classic chocolate, marshmallow, and graham cracker treat with this easy-to-use S'mores Maker.

ESPN Gamestation (Fisher Price) Kids can play six of their favorite sports at anytime indoors. Kids play while an ESPN commentator reports on their performance.

This arcade-style game center features the voice of Stuart Scott and includes soccer, baseball, golf, and football equipment.

Furreal Friends Love Cub (Hasbro) These cuddly bear cubs are ready to love. Each bear can hug its owner, play peek-a-boo, and whimper to show it's ready for his bottle.

Fashion Fever (Mattel) Getting gussied up is what these ladies are all about.

Mattel's fashion-frenzied dolls include Barbie, Teresa, Kayla, and Drew.

Now that kids have voted for their favorite toys, parents and caregivers can find more shopping information at http://yahooligans.yahoo.com/toptentoys. Parents can also go to Yahoo! Shopping (http://shopping.yahoo.com) to find information on how to buy each of the Yahooligans! Top Ten Toys.

This year's poll was sponsored by Paramount Pictures' upcoming film, "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events" starring Jim Carrey, Jude Law as the voice of Lemony Snicket and Meryl Streep, in theaters everywhere December 17th. Film branding was featured throughout the voting site.

Yahoo! Shopping Shakes up the Holiday Season Inside World's Largest Interactive Snow Globe

2004-11-22T15:09:00.000Z

On Black Friday, Yahoo! Will Invite Shoppers in New York's Times Square to Search and Comparison Shop for Gifts Inside a Winter Wonderland

Sunnyvale, CA -- November 22, 2004 -- This Friday, November 26, Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - News) will bring snow to New York City with the Yahoo! Shopping Snow Globe, an interactive winter wonderland located in the heart of Times Square. Designed to "shake up" the traditional holiday shopping experience, the snow globe will feature Yahoo!'s Comparison Shopping Santa and his many elves, eager to show consumers how to search and compare products on Yahoo! to find a great deal without fighting the crowds.
This Yahoo! Shopping winter wonderland will also feature custom-designed Wi-Fi Internet kiosks for instant online shopping gratification, as well as free digital photos with Santa inside the world's largest interactive snow globe. All photos will be uploaded to http://promotions.yahoo.com/santa, where consumers can view their photos and send a link to the site to friends and family directly from the snow globe. The Yahoo! Shopping Snow Globe will remain in Times Square through Saturday, November 27, open both days from 7 AM until 3 PM.

"When Yahoo! asked Absolute Hollywood to create the world's largest interactive snow globe, we were thrilled to take on the challenge of breaking our own size record and create this revolutionary snow globe for the event," said James Lanier, Director, Absolute Hollywood. "We wanted our snow globe to symbolically reflect the scale of the shopping experience on Yahoo!, as well as provide this visual type of wonderment that has delighted children and adults for generations."

"This event emphasizes the fun, ease and ultimate convenience of online shopping, whether people start shopping now or wait until the last minute," said Rob Solomon, VP and GM, Yahoo! Shopping. "Powered by Yahoo!'s award-winning Product Search, Yahoo! Shopping is the online destination for anyone searching for the right gift at the right price this holiday season."

Wish Big, Win Bigger
To celebrate the official start of the holiday shopping season, Yahoo! Shopping today launched its "Wish and Win" sweepstakes, offering consumers a chance to win one of five personality-themed wishlists or $10,000 in cash to use towards their own wishlist. Each themed wishlist offers something fun for anyone, including:

Playful -- Plasma TV, hot tub, and more
Fun-Loving -- Rollerblades, snorkeling equipment, trampoline, and more
Contemporary -- Blackberry, iPod, diamond earrings, and more
Trendy -- Satellite radio, Segway, Yoga kit, and more
Adventurous -- all terrain vehicle, skis, camping gear and more

The promotion highlights the new "Save and Share" feature on Yahoo! Shopping, which makes it easy for consumers to create a wishlist by saving products from merchants across the Web into one location. These wishlists can be emailed to anyone, making it easy for consumers to let friends and family know what they want this holiday season. The sweepstakes will run until December 24, 2004; enter at http://shopping.promotions.yahoo.com/wishandwin.

There's No Place Like Yahoo! Shopping for the Holidays

Looking for a memorable gift for everyone on this year's list? The Yahoo! Shopping Holiday Gift Center (http://www.shopping.yahoo.com/holiday) makes gift giving simple and special by offering great ideas for the perfect gift. With Top 10 product lists in a variety of categories, and gift guides for a multitude of personalities, including the "trendy wife," "tech-savvy sister," "trendy brother," "the Creator," "the Rebel" and more, consumers can find a desirable gift for anyone on their giving list this year.

Yahoo!'s powerful Product Search engine recently expanded the ability to narrow by attribute, which makes it simple to search and sort through millions of "soft goods" products. Type "shoes" into Yahoo! Shopping, for example, and users can quickly and easily narrow tens of thousands of results by selecting various attributes -- gender, age, shoe style, brand, store, price, and special deals.

Whether from the front page of Yahoo! Shopping or from within the Holiday Gift Guides, consumers can also take advantage of many comparison shopping tools and services available on Yahoo! Shopping, including side-by-side product comparisons, buyer's guides, price alerts, merchant and product ratings and reviews, free shipping and bargains pages and more.

Google Names Nikesh Arora Vice President of European Operations

2004-11-22T15:08:00.000Z

Company Strengthens Focus on Europe, Hires Arora To Lead Growing European Business

LONDON - November 22, 2004 - Google Inc., developer of the award-winning Google search engine, today announced that the company named Nikesh Arora as its new vice president of European Operations. Arora brings 16 years of diverse management experience to Google's expanding European operations and his appointment represents Google's continued commitment to growth in Europe. Arora will join Google in December, 2004, based in London.

In this newly created role, Arora will manage and develop Google's operations in the European market. Arora will also be responsible for continuing to create and expand strategic partnerships in Europe for the benefit of Google's growing number of users and advertisers.

"The leadership and experience that Nikesh Arora brings to Google will be an invaluable asset to Google's growing European business", said Omid Kordestani, senior vice president of Google's Worldwide Sales and Field Operations. "Nikesh's proven track record of leading high performance teams and driving businesses make him the ideal candidate to take Google's European operations to the next phase of growth."

Arora joins Google from T-Mobile, where he was Chief Marketing Officer and a Member of the Management Board. At T-Mobile, Arora was responsible for all product development, terminals, brand and marketing activities of T-Mobile Europe. Arora started working with Deutsche Telekom in 1999, during which time he founded T-Motion PLC, a mobile multimedia subsidiary of T-Mobile International.

Prior to his career at Deutsche Telecom, Arora held management positions at Putnam Investments and Fidelity Investments in Boston

Yahoo! Personals Launches "Premier" Service with Revolutionary Matching System for Singles

2004-11-17T03:16:00.000Z

Online Dating Leader Addresses Growing Consumer Needs

Sunnyvale, CA -- November 17, 2004 -- Yahoo! Personals (http://personals.yahoo.com) today announced the launch of Yahoo! Personals Premier - a revolutionary new service that fulfills the evolving needs of today's online daters. Yahoo! Personals Premier integrates an advanced matching system with two innovative self-assessment tests designed to help singles in search of more serious relationships find people who are the best fit for them.

The standard Yahoo! Personals service, which costs $19.95 per month, continues to serve a large population of casual daters with newly enhanced search and communication features aimed at meeting the growing needs of today's online daters. Yahoo! Personals Premier, which costs $34.95 per month, fulfills the needs of singles seeking long-term relationships with deeper personality profiling, advanced searching tools and an exclusive pool of like-minded singles. Both services allow singles to take the new, free Personality & Love Style Test and Relationship Test, which give them a stronger sense of who is most compatible with them. Singles can find more subscription and pricing information on Yahoo! Personals Premier at http://personals.yahoo.com/premierinfo.

"Although the online dating industry is still in its infancy, singles' needs and expectations are evolving as they become more sophisticated online daters," said Lorna Borenstein, vice president and general manager of Yahoo! Personals. "We recognized a clear opportunity to demonstrate our leadership and expertise by enhancing our existing offerings and creating a service that offers singles what they want - choice, flexibility and the best tools available so they can say goodbye to an aspect of the dating life that some singles say feels like an endless string of coffee dates and embrace the next level of compatibility."

Yahoo! Personals conducted extensive consumer research that showed single men and women categorized themselves as either casual daters or seeking long-term relationships. While they have different end goals, both groups indicated that they want an online dating service that offers more personal choice, and makes it faster and easier to find people who are most compatible with them. Market research also revealed that many singles currently paying for an online dating service noted a number of areas where they would hope for enhancements in the future. Key areas of importance were searching capabilities and tools that help them gauge compatibility and overall fit with a potential date. Yahoo! is serving singles' evolving needs by now offering an enhanced online dating service which addresses issues illuminated in this research.

Put Yourself to the Test
Designed exclusively for Yahoo! Personals by weAttract.com, the Personality & Love Style Test and Relationship Test use interactive re-enactments of real-life relationship scenarios instead of static multiple choice questions. This compelling real-life-scenario methodology is proven to be a more accurate indicator of how people are likely to act in everyday situations. Unlike any other online dating service, Yahoo! Personals integrates results of the free tests with its advanced searching and matching system to find singles that are the best fit for each other.

After taking the 8-10 minute Personality & Love Style Test, singles receive a customized report of their personality type, love style, biggest challenges and suggestions on which type of person is a good fit for them. They can then choose to include their personality type and love style in their Yahoo! Personals profile so others can conduct searches based on that criteria.

The Yahoo! Personals Premier Relationship Test, which takes approximately 30 minutes to complete, provides a personalized, in-depth report measuring compatibility with others, relationship skills, and much more. While anyone can take the Relationship Test for free, results can only be incorporated into searches by Premier members.

The Premier Advantage
A key component of Yahoo! Personals Premier is SmartFit™, an advanced system unmatched by any other online dating service in its breadth and depth of searching and matching capabilities. This first of its kind matching technology combines basic search criteria with results of the new Personality & Love Style Test and Relationship Test to identify the most compatible singles for each person using the service.

Yahoo! Personals Premier subscribers also benefit from the following features:

Overall Fit Rating - One to five hearts will appear within search results based on a combination of Personality Fit and Relationship Fit ratings

Personality Fit - A measure of compatibility with someone else who has taken the Personality & Love Style Test; a rating ranging from "Good Fit" to "Poor Fit" appears directly in search results

Relationship Fit - A five-point scale (from "Excellent" to "Poor") displayed directly in the search results indicates whether someone who has also taken the Relationship Test is a good fit

Fit Optimizer - Singles are encouraged to provide feedback on how compatible they are with the people Yahoo! Personals recommends for them; feedback improves future search results

"With Yahoo! Personals Premier and the new unique self-assessment tools, online daters have the greatest opportunity to connect with people who are the best fit for them," Borenstein added. "We know that the element of chemistry is out of our hands, but we believe that our new technology delivers stronger compatibility which results in better first dates and ultimately, more second dates for singles."

Google Provides Targeted Advertising to Buy.com

2004-11-16T03:12:00.000Z

Buy.com Customers Benefit from the Addition of Relevant Advertisements To Search and Content Pages of the Website

ALISO VIEJO & MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - November 16, 2004 - Buy.com, the Internet Superstore, and Google Inc. today announced the launch of an advertising partnership that delivers Google AdWords advertisements to Buy.com's customers. As part of the agreement, Google's targeted, text-based ads appear on Buy.com's website through the Google AdSense program.

"The partnership between Google and Buy.com furthers both companies' mission statements, which are customer-centric," stated Neel Grover, president of Buy.com. "By adding Google's targeted ads to Buy.com, we are giving our customers additional, highly-relevant resources with which to make an informed buying decision."

Google's relevant, targeted ads are now incorporated throughout Buy.com's website, including top-tier technology pages such as the computers and electronics homepages, as well as the popular entertainment and leisure stores including Books, Music, Sports, DVDs, and others. In addition, customers searching on Buy.com will receive Google advertisements on the search results pages.

"Google's relevant ads are designed to improve the user experience on Buy.com, while providing the company with an additional revenue opportunity," said Omid Kordestani, senior vice president of World Wide Sales and Field Operations. "This agreement also adds Buy.com to the Google Network and extends the reach for Google AdWords advertisers to another quality website."

About Buy.com
Buy.com®, The Internet Superstore™, offers its over 7 million customers more than 2 million products in a range of categories including computer hardware and software, electronics, cellular products and services, music and music downloads at 256k, DVDs, books, toys and more. Individuals and businesses can shop quickly and easily at Buy.com 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Buy.com was named one of the Top 50 web sites in 2002 and 2003 by Internet Retailer, the top performing site on Gomez Inc.'s E-Holiday Shopping 2002 Index in the music, electronics and books category (December 2002), "Best Overall Place To Buy Mobile Devices" (January 2002), "Best E-Commerce Site" by PC World magazine (June 2001), "Best Overall Place To Buy" by Computer Shopper Magazine (January 2001), a "Best of the Web" in the computer and electronics category by Forbes Magazine (spring 2000 and fall 2000), and the No. 1 electronics e-tailer in the PowerRankings by Forrester Research, Inc. (November 2000). Buy.com, founded in June 1997, is located in Aliso Viejo, California. For more information, visit www.buy.com. Buy.com® and The Internet Superstore™ are trademarks of Buy.com, Inc.

Yahoo! Mail Leads the Industry in Protection from Online Identity Theft through E-mail

2004-11-15T03:13:00.000Z

Worldwide Availability of Advanced Search Capabilities, Significant Storage Increase, and Enhanced Address Book Tools in Yahoo! Mail

Sunnyvale, CA -- November 15, 2004 -- Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - News), a leading global Internet company, today announced a suite of powerful enhancements to the award-winning Yahoo! Mail (http://mail.yahoo.com) service. In its commitment to provide a safe e-mail experience, Yahoo! Mail has implemented DomainKeys (TM) -- a leading technological solution that validates the true origin of e-mail messages -- to bolster protection against online identity theft through e-mail. Through a form of identity theft called "phishing," spammers try to disguise their identity and send out forged e-mail messages in an effort to gain access to consumers' personal information. With DomainKeys in place, consumers will receive increased protection from spammers who use e-mail forgery, also known as "spoofing," to steal valuable information. Yahoo! Mail is also making available today several new enhancements worldwide, including advanced search capabilities, free storage increase to 250 megabytes, and easier address book transfer and address notification tools.

With an increase in storage, consumers around the world can store their attachments, important messages, or information they want to easily access from anywhere from their Web-based accounts. All users will benefit from enhanced search capabilities with the ability to easily and quickly sort, search and retrieve the e-mail messages they store in their account as well as have immediate access to Yahoo! Search for results from the Web. The company is making it easier than ever to switch to Yahoo! Mail's award-winning service with new tools to quickly transfer address book information from another e-mail service, and effortlessly notify contacts of the new e-mail address.

"Yahoo! Mail understands that online security is vital to consumers, and through our development and implementation of the DomainKeys authentication solution, we are actively helping to protect consumers from threats like e-mail spoofing and identity theft," said Brad Garlinghouse, vice president of Communications Products, Yahoo! Inc. "Yahoo! Mail has been delivering a reliable and valuable e-mail service for more than seven years. Our e-mail experience, coupled with our technological expertise, helps Yahoo! to continue to enhance our service and deliver a leading e-mail experience to our users around the world."

Increased Spam Protection
With the implementation of DomainKeys, Yahoo! Mail has put new safeguards in place to improve consumer protection from e-mail spoofing, a spamming technique that is being used in an increasingly dangerous form of identity theft called "phishing." Phishing is often used by spammers to obtain consumers' personal information, such as passwords, Social Security numbers or credit card information. The technique has been coined "phishing," because spammers pose as a trustworthy company or brand in order to fish for valuable personal information.

Drawing from its technological expertise, Yahoo! developed and implemented the innovative DomainKeys technology to validate the origin of a message and is providing it royalty-free to the industry at large. Based on cryptographic technology that uses encryption and decryption methods, DomainKeys is recognized as a leading authentication solution for protecting against the e-mail forgery and phishing issues. With DomainKeys in-place behind-the-scenes, at the system level, consumers will automatically receive increased protection from these harmful spamming techniques.

Yahoo! Mail: Continuing to Enhance
Additional enhancements announced today reflect Yahoo! Mail's continued commitment to introduce compelling and valuable features to its users worldwide. Enhanced features include:

Increased storage & attachment size - Users of the free Yahoo! Mail service can now enjoy the flexibility of 250-megabytes of storage and a maximum attachment size limit of 10-megabytes, while premium customers maintain the 2-gigabytes of virtually unlimited storage and a new maximum 20-megabtyte attachment size limit.

Advanced search of e-mail and the Web - In line with Yahoo!'s commitment to provide the best search experience on the Web, Yahoo! Mail now provides an even easier way to find and sort messages and attachments, conduct basic and advanced searches of e-mail, and access Yahoo! Search results. This can be done through the new prominent "Search Mail" and "Search the Web" buttons within the e-mail inbox.

Transfer contacts - Yahoo! Mail has now made it even easier for consumers to switch from other e-mail services to award-winning Yahoo! Mail by quickly and easily transferring address book contacts. With the new import contacts feature, consumers can effortlessly import all their contact information into Yahoo! Address Book when they set up a new account. Additionally, Yahoo! Mail is the first, among the leading free e-mail services, to allow people to notify all the contacts in their Yahoo! Address Book of their new address, so that people never lose touch with their friends, family and colleagues.

Address AutoComplete - Yahoo! Address AutoComplete has been enhanced to quickly and automatically suggest contact matches from the Yahoo! Address Book as the first few letters of a recipient's name or e-mail address are typed into the To/Cc/Bcc fields while composing an e-mail message. This helps eliminates e-mail address typos and makes composing e-mails easier than ever.

About DomainKeys

Introduced by Yahoo!, DomainKeys leverages public/private key cryptography to verify the sender of an e-mail message at the domain level. A sending system uses a private key to generate a signature and inserts the signature in the e-mail header. The receiving e-mail system uses the public key, published in the Domain Name System, to verify the signature of the e-mail. Recognized as a leading authentication solution, DomainKeys provides a viable solution for increasing protection from e-mail forgery and phishing issues today. Additional information on DomainKeys can be found on Yahoo!'s Anti-Spam Resource Center at: http://antispam.yahoo.com.

MSN Search Beta Fact Sheet

2004-11-11T01:15:00.000Z

http://beta.search.msn.com
November 2004

Overview

MSN® Search makes Web searches more useful by providing consumers with improved access to information and fast, relevant answers to their questions. MSN Search (launched in 1998) is currently among the top three search portals in the United States and worldwide.1 MSN Search is available internationally in 39 markets and 19 languages.

On Nov. 11, 2004, MSN released a global beta of the improved MSN Search service in 26 markets and 11 languages worldwide.2 The beta version, which features a Microsoft-built search engine, represents a milestone in the development of a comprehensive MSN Search service that moves search beyond its current limited offerings to delivering answers faster and providing consumers with more control over their search experience.

Better, More Relevant Results

MSN has listened to consumers throughout the development process and invested heavily in creating a state-of-the-art search engine to serve as the foundation for MSN Search. The new MSN Search beta delivers the information consumers are looking for online faster through a combination of up-to-date resources and search tools that make it possible for consumers to tailor their search to their needs, including these:

Vast index of information
Consumers can quickly and easily find the most relevant information with MSN Search, which offers one of the largest, most up-to-date indexes of Web documents reported today, with over 5 billion documents.
To help consumers quickly get to the information they are looking for, MSN Search offers the ability to search for specific types of information using search tabs, including Web, news and images.

Most up-to-date information
The MSN Search index, much of which is updated weekly or even daily, provides the most relevant, timely and accurate data as quickly as possible, while minimizing frustrating dead links.

Direct answers
Using MSN Search, a consumer can type in a question and receive an authoritative, direct answer provided by Microsoft® Encarta®, the No. 1 best-selling encyclopedia brand.3
Encarta can provide fact-based answers such as definition, facts, calculations, conversions and solutions to equations. Sample types of searches include the following, among many others:
"Who was the vice president for George Washington?"
"What is seven times twenty?"
"Define spanakopita"
"How many inches in a mile?"

Direct actions
Using MSN Search, consumers can type in the name of an artist, song or album and receive results from MSN Music. One click allows consumers to sample the music; a second click lets them purchase and download.

Image search
The current image index includes more than 400 million high-quality images. By using the image tab, consumers can effortlessly find the photo they are looking for.
By default, MSN Search filters out explicit images.

More Control for Consumers

Microsoft Corp. designed MSN Search to overcome the "one size fits all" approach offered by other search engines. Pull-down menus and other customization tools built into MSN Search allow consumers to control and refine their searches in the following ways:

Using the Search Near Me feature, consumers can choose to receive search results tailored to a geographic location. A consumer in Portland, Maine, who needs the nearest pizza place or local fire station no longer must sift through online listings for Portland, Ore. This is accomplished by assigning geographical information to Web pages as they are indexed by the service.
Using the Search Builder tool, consumers can customize search results by emphasizing or de-emphasizing certain search criteria, such as specific site or domain, country or region, or language. Consumers can visit a menu of adjustable onscreen dials for each criterion, which can be reset when consumers' criteria change. A consumer who needs current facts and figures can adjust the dial to emphasize the most updated results; a consumer who is looking for the official Web site of a favorite television program can adjust the dial to emphasize the most popular results.

Availability

The new MSN Search beta is available today via local URLs in 26 markets -- including Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, France, Finland, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States -- and 11 languages and in the United States at http://beta.search.msn.com .

MSN Search is available at http://www.search.msn.com in 39 markets and 19 languages.

1 Nielsen//NetRatings, March 2004

2 MSN Search Beta features vary by market.

3 NPDTechWorldSM, March 1993--March 2004. Based on total U.S. retail sales.

Microsoft Launches Beta Version of New MSN Search Service

2004-11-11T01:00:00.000Z

New MSN Search Service Helps Consumers Find and Act on Information More Quickly

REDMOND, Wash. -- Nov. 11, 2004 -- MSN today debuted a beta version of its new MSN® Search service, providing consumers with more useful answers to their questions and more control over their search experience, which results in faster access to the information they are seeking online. The new MSN Search is designed to reduce the time and effort required by consumers to find information online by offering one of the largest, most up-to-date selections of information and a new class of powerful, customizable search tools.

The global beta version of MSN Search is available today for public use in the United States at http://beta.search.msn.com, and worldwide in 26 markets and 11 languages from local MSN Web sites.* The new MSN Search allows consumers to quickly receive relevant answers from a universe of more than 5 billion Web documents.

New and innovative features in MSN Search provide an enhanced search experience by providing relevant answers to direct questions -- such as "What is the second-longest coastline in the world?" -- within the search results. In addition, the Search Near Me feature automatically provides information and resources that are close to home, dramatically reducing the time needed to find geographically relevant information and eliminating the need to sift through thousands of links. Finally, searching for news, images or music is fully integrated into the new, streamlined search experience.

"The release of our beta is a huge step toward delivering the information consumers are looking for online, faster than previous versions of MSN Search," said Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president for the MSN Information Services & Merchant Platform division at Microsoft Corp. "With better results and more powerful search tools, MSN Search is creating a new, higher standard for online search -- one that helps consumers find the information they need, when they need it."

New Search Engine Revs Up Relevance and Presentation of Online Answers

At the heart of the new MSN Search is an advanced search engine, built over the past two years on Microsoft® technology, that dramatically improves search results by offering consumers the following features and benefits:

Vast index of information. The MSN Search index of more than 5 billion Web documents is one of the largest indexes offered today. With more items being added continually, the new search engine increases consumers' chances of finding the information they want.

The most up-to-date information. The index, much of which is updated weekly or even daily, provides the most relevant, timely and accurate data as quickly as possible, while minimizing frustrating dead links.

Direct answers. Users can ask the search engine a question -- such as "What is the capital of Turkey?" -- and receive the answer -- "Ankara" -- from Microsoft Encarta®, the No. 1 best-selling encyclopedia brand.** Authoritative, direct answers are provided in a number of categories, including definitions, facts, calculations, conversions and solutions to equations.

Direct actions. When consumers type the name of an artist, song or album, they get linked directly to top music and other content provided by MSN Music. One click allows MSN Search users to sample music, and a second click lets them purchase and download it.

Content-specific searching. To help consumers quickly get to the information they are looking for, MSN Search enables them to search for specific information using search tabs such as Web, news and images.

New Search Tools Offer Consumers More Control

Microsoft designed MSN Search to overcome the one-size-fits-all approach offered by other search engines. Pull-down menus and other customization tools built into MSN Search allow consumers to control and refine their searches in the following ways:

Search Near Me. Consumers can receive search results tailored to a geographic location. A consumer in Portland, Maine, who needs to know the location of the nearest local fire station no longer needs to sift through online listings for Portland, Ore. This is accomplished by assigning geographical information to Web pages as they are indexed by the service.

Search Builder. MSN Search users can customize search results by emphasizing or de-emphasizing certain search criteria, such as specific sites or domains, countries, regions, or languages. Consumers who want to apply specific criteria to their searches can visit a menu of adjustable on-screen dials for each criterion. The dials can be reset when consumers' criteria change. A consumer who needs current facts and figures can adjust the dial to emphasize the most updated results, and someone looking for the official Web site of a favorite television show can adjust the dial to emphasize the most popular results.

Through the efforts of many of its top developers and employees around the world, Microsoft is dedicating thousands of hours to build the new search service, a complete version of which is slated to launch early next year. The new MSN Search is another example of the MSN vision to empower people globally through information, software and services that help them find, discover and experience what they want to online.

Google's index nearly doubles

2004-11-10T01:52:00.000Z

You probably never notice the large number that appears in tiny type at the bottom of the Google home page, but I do. It's a measure of how many pages we have in our index and gives an indication of how broadly we search to find the information you're looking for. Today that number nearly doubled to more than 8 billion pages. That made me smile.

Comprehensiveness is not the only important factor in evaluating a search engine, but it's invaluable for queries that only return a few results. For example, now when I search for friends who previously generated only a handful of results, I see double that number. These are not just copies of the same pages, but truly diverse results that give more information. The same is true for obscure topics, where you're now significantly more likely to find relevant and diverse information about the subjects. You may also notice that the result counts for broader queries (with thousands or millions of results) have gone up substantially. However, as with any search engine, these are estimates, and the real benefit lies with the queries that generate fewer results.

The documents in Google's index are in dozens of file types from HTML to PDF, including PowerPoint, Flash, PostScript and JavaScript. Together these pages represent a good chunk of the world's information, but hardly all of it. That's why we keep building more advanced systems for crawling the web and creating more sophisticated indices to sort what we find. So 8 billion pages is a milestone worth noting, but it's not the end of the road. The real test is how well we do in finding what you want from within those pages. We'll keep improving that too.

Bill Coughran
V.P., Engineering
http://www.google.com/googleblog/2004/11/googles-index-nearly-doubles.html

Yahoo! Research Reveals the Internet is the Primary Media of Choice for Loyal Newspaper Readers

2004-11-04T01:07:00.000Z

Consumers Ability to be Programmer Drives Internet Usage for Breaking News, In-Depth Coverage, Local Community Information, and Shopping

New York, NY -- November 4, 2004 -- Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - News), a leading global Internet company, today unveiled the findings of a study of avid newspaper readers, revealing that Internet usage of loyal newspaper readers outpaces their daily newspaper readership. The study showed that nearly 72 percent of newspaper loyalists access the Internet daily, while approximately 42 percent read a daily paper. Though still loyal to newspapers, avid newspaper readers are increasingly turning to the Internet to supplement their newspaper experience. The detailed findings of this study will be presented by Yahoo! today at the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) Conference in New York City.

The results of the study show the changing landscape of media consumption patterns, highlighting that certain mediums serve very clear purposes for consumers. While newspapers and the Internet are both important to loyal newspaper readers, the reasons for significance are different. Readers claim they are drawn to the Internet each day because of the wide breadth of content, its timeliness, convenience, and the ability to control content delivery.

"The findings of the Newspaper Loyalist study illustrate the need for marketers to communicate their messages to consumers through multiple media," said Wenda Harris Millard, chief sales officer, Yahoo!, Inc. "In this new world of choice and personalization, consumers are now and will continue to be more in control of their media choices. Yahoo!'s research studies are designed to provide key insights that help marketers build effective marketing programs to connect with their core audiences."

The Internet as a News Source
The Internet continues to provide consumers with more in-depth and immediate news, creating a cultural shift in the purpose and definition of the traditional newspaper. The majority of newspaper loyalists now consider reading the newspaper a "leisurely" pursuit, focusing more on the entertainment section, comics, and ad circulars versus the business section. More than half of participants report accessing the Internet at least once a day for timely news and information.

"I kind of like holding the paper, and I like reading the paper. But I definitely use the Internet for more in-depth things...I'll use the news bulletins to find out more about a story and research it." - Male study participant, 37 years old.

Newspaper Loyalists Go Shopping
The Internet and newspaper both serve an important role to shoppers. Newspaper loyalists are multi-channel shoppers - nearly two-thirds of them use newspapers, the Internet, and retail stores to research, shop and purchase, while more than half use the Internet to research a specific product mentioned in a newspaper circular. More than half of these shoppers indicate that they have been doing researching online and purchasing offline for the last three years.

"I always use the Internet. I will not make a purchase until I know I am getting the best deal." - Male study participant, 37 years old.

The study revealed that the Internet often provides complementary information for newspaper readers, including detailed information about product features, reviews, comparison pricing, and granular product details. Overall, responses show that more than half of newspaper loyalists used online information to make a purchase and the majority of those purchased offline.

The Internet Provides Local Connection
Though the Internet is the first truly global medium, it is also vital to connecting people with their local communities. In fact, 69 percent of newspaper loyalists turn to the Internet as a source of information about their local surroundings, including news, weather, and local event information. Sixty-one percent of these same consumers report that they go online to look up local information.

"I'll check the newyorkcity.gov page to see what street fairs are going on, and what other festivals might be going on, to see if there's something within walking distance to go to that day." - Male study participant, 45 years old.

"I don't think I have a map of New York...If I needed to figure out where something was I would go to the Internet and find a map." - Male study participant, 33 years old.

About the Newspaper Loyalist Study
The qualitative portion of the study, fielded by Faulkner Focus, consisted of an ethnographic study in which 22 participants were interviewed while reading their newspapers and accessing the Internet in their homes, parks, or during their commute to work. The research was conducted in New York and San Francisco, targeting adults ages 18-49 who regularly read the newspaper (at least three times per week). Complementary quantitative research, fielded by Ipsos-Insight, elaborated and quantified research findings via an online panel of 1182 participants from six major cities.