News

• Yahoo Axis may be game changer for search and the troubled company

  With Axis, Yahoo is trying to change the search game, while also trying to change its image as a troubled company.

• European privacy regulators want more detail on Google's policy changes

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• Yahoo leaks private key, allows anyone to build Yahoo-signed Chrome extensions

  Yahoo was forced to release a new version of its Axis extension for Google Chrome after the original one contained a private key that allowed anyone to digitally sign extensions in Yahoo's name.

• Yahoo launches stand-alone mobile search app

  Yahoo beefed up its search offerings on Wednesday when it launched Axis, an HTML5-based browser app that delivers search results as page previews rather than as links.

• Microsoft takes Bing Streetside offline in Germany after privacy complaints

  Microsoft has taken its Google Street View-like service Bing Streetside offline in Germany after German citizens expressed their worries about how Microsoft handles requests for blurring of images, the company said on Tuesday.

• Google becomes hardware company with $12.5B Motorola buy

  It's official: Google is now a hardware company.

• EU offers Google a chance to avoid fines over four antitrust concerns

  Google has "a matter of weeks" to address four antitrust issues identified by European Union antitrust regulators. If Google addresses these issues the case can be solved by a so-called "commitment decision" instead of formal antitrust proceedings resulting in a fine, said Joaquín Almunia, Vice President of the European Commission responsible for Competition Policy.

• Microsoft's social networking site So.cl now open to all users

  So.cl, an experimental research project from Microsoft, that combines social networking and search to promote learning, is now accepting all users interested in joining the site.

• EU offers Google a chance to avoid fines over four antitrust concerns

  Google has "a matter of weeks" to address four antitrust issues identified by European Union antitrust regulators. If Google addresses these issues the case can be solved by a so-called "commitment decision" instead of formal antitrust proceedings resulting in a fine, said Joaquín Almunia, Vice President of the European Commission responsible for Competition Policy.

• Google's new Knowledge Graph: Three key features

  Google has unwrapped the first of its long-promised semantic search capabilities, dubbed Knowledge Graph.

• Google aims to make search smarter, easier

  The vaunted Google search engine is set for an upgrade that will make it easier for users to find the information they need by putting their searches in context, the company said Wednesday.

• Google search will incorporate 'knowledge graph' into main search results

  Google will begin in the next few days to incorporate the "knowledge graph" it has been building for two years into its search results .

• China's Baidu unveils new low-end smartphone with latest cloud platform

  Baidu, which runs China's most popular search engine, has unveiled its newest smartphone, featuring the company's own mobile platform and priced to target the country's low-end handset segment.

• With another CEO out, Yahoo's turnaround stalled

  For the second time in eight months, Yahoo is without a permanent CEO. The latest development is bringing more trouble for a company struggling to regain its stature in the industry.

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  WSJ: Thompson told Yahoo board he has cancer

  Scott Thompson told the Yahoo board before he was ousted as CEO over the weekend that he has thyroid cancer, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

  Thompson revealed the diagnosis as evidence arose that seemed to contradict his story about why he was not responsible for a degree listed on his resume that he does not have, the newspaper reported, citing anonymous sources familiar with the situation.

  The cancer diagnosis came while Thompson's academic record was under scrutiny by a Yahoo board committee appointed to investigate the matter. Thompson did not want his illness to be publicly disclosed, a source told the Journal, and he has begun treatment for the disease.

  Thompson, who had been under increasing pressure to step down because of the resume situation, decided to resign in part because of the cancer diagnosis, one source told the newspaper. His resume listed an accounting and computer science degree from Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts, but his degree was in accounting only, it was discovered.

  Thompson blamed the error on a head-hunting firm that had been involved when he was named president of eBay's PayPal division, but the firm, Heidrick and Struggles, publicly discounted that claim, saying that it could prove it was false.

  Yahoo announced Sunday that Thompson had left the company and that Ross Levinsohn, who had been in charge of the company's media websites, would step in as interim CEO while the board searches for a replacement. Fred Amoroso was also named chairman of the board, replacing non-executive Chairman Roy Bostock. The board also announced it had settled a proxy fight by activist shareholder Daniel Loeb, who leads the Third Point investment fund, which owns about 5.8 percent of Yahoo. Loeb brought to light the discrepancy in Thompson's academic record, which played a central role in plunging the company into the latest of what has been a long series of controversies and missteps by Yahoo management.

  Soon after Yahoo announced that Thompson had left the company -- it did not call his departure a "resignation" -- Kara Swisher, the reporter who broke the news that Thompson was out as CEO on the All Things D blog Sunday, posted Levinsohn's first memo to employees in which he sought to offer encouragement.