Random News

September 19, 2007

Here are some random news for this week:

NBA Bobcats buy bobcats.com for 50,000.

Barbara Roe owns Bitterroot Bobcat and Lynx in Stevensville, Mont., and had the rights to the Web site name for 10 years. She says team officials began asking her in 2004 about buying the rights, but the early offer of a couple thousand dollars wasn’t enough. Roe says they have agreed to pay about $50,000.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3025430

Facebook Backers Announce $10 Million Fund For Start-ups

Online social networking phenomenon Facebook Inc said on Monday its backers have created an unusual $10 million fund to dole out grants to start-ups with ideas for innovative Facebook applications.

Facebook is working with its primary venture backers, Accel Capital and The Founders Fund, to create a way for people with new ideas to receive an initial funding grant of $25,000 to $250,000 that does not require the entrepreneur to give up any equity in the business they create, as venture capital does.

“We are looking for innovative and disruptive things,” Mark Zuckerberg said of projects the grants might fund, in a keynote presentation at TechCrunch 40, a conference showcasing Web start-ups taking place this week in San Francisco.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUKN1724454620070918

Yahoo to buy Zimbra for $350 Millions

Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news)/span>. is buying e-mail service Zimbra Inc. for $350 million in an all-cash deal that may open a new revenue channel for the slumping Internet icon.

The acquisition announced Monday represents Yahoo’s second significant expenditure this month as co-founder Jerry Yang spearheads an effort to breathe new life into the Sunnyvale-based company.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070918/ap_on_hi_te/yahoo_zimbra

Privacy Group Says Google’s Call For A Standard Is Not Enough

The U.S. government still needs to block or impose conditions on Google Inc.’s acquisition of online advertising server DoubleClick Inc., despite Google’s call for global privacy standards, three privacy groups said Monday.

Google last Friday called for a global privacy standard, and the company referred to a framework designed by Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).

But the APEC standard is “weak,” Melissa Ngo, director of the Identification and Surveillance Project at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), said during a press conference Monday. The APEC standard “puts the burden on consumers to prove they are being harmed,” she said.

Washignton Post

Idearc to Acquire Switchboard.com From InfoSpace for $225 Million

Idearc Inc., home to Superpages.com and publisher of the Verizon Yellow Pages, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Switchboard.com and other online directory assets from InfoSpace Inc. for $225 million.

Businesswire

Google Says Click Fraud Is Overestimated

Given that most of Google’s $13 billion in revenue comes from clicks on ads, you would think the words “click fraud” would inspire fear in Shuman Ghosemajumder, the company’s senior product manager and resident click-fraud czar. But the problem–publishers who inflate pay-per-click ad fees with automatic clicking software–doesn’t fluster Ghosemajumder or other Googlers.

But click-fraud auditors argue that there’s a discrepancy: They say you throw away no more than 10% of clicks, while they estimate click fraud rates at as much as 25%.

Forbes

Firefox Celebrates 400 Million Downloads

The popular open-source browser Firefox hit another milestone on Friday when it passed the 400 million download mark.

The browser, distributed by Mozilla, appears to be enjoying exponential growth in terms of downloads. From its launch in 2004, it took one year to reach 100 million downloads. A year later, it hit 200 million downloads….

It is difficult to judge the exact share of the browser market enjoyed by Firefox. The most recent statistics published by W3Counter suggest that Firefox holds a quarter of the market, but most other organisations releasing such statistics suggest a slightly lower figure.

ZDnet