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The space program's influence on Silicon Valley

As a Bay Area native steeped in academia--my father is a college professor--I always wanted to believe in the primacy of universities in just about everything.

That's why, for years, I had assumed that the most important factor in the development of Silicon Valley as the world's leading technology center was Stanford. After all, it is located in Palo Alto, Calif., right in the middle of the Valley, and its students and graduates were behind such industry powerhouses as Hewlett-Packard, Yahoo, Google and many others.

Well, as my story, How NASA helped invent Silicon Valley, which is up … Read more

Yahoo making big improvements in search

Yahoo is making important improvements to the user interface and the output of its search engine. It will now suggest complete search queries for you as you type. It makes entering queries a lot faster and improves the likelihood that you'll spell your query correctly. Google offers a similar feature in its downloadable add-on, Google Toolbar, but not yet on its Web site.

The suggestions box also shows related search terms. It's pretty smart. When I tried searching for "Corvette," for example, the Search Assist box also displayed "sports cars," "z06," and … Read more

Yahoo and Spain's Telefonica partner on mobile search, ads

Millions of people in 15 European and Latin American countries will be searching the Web and getting news and ads on their mobile phones from Yahoo under a deal the search provider inked with Spanish telecommunications company Telefonica.

Under the partnership, Yahoo's OneSearch mobile software will be the exclusive search engine for Telefonica local subsidiaries in the U.K., Ireland, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Panama, Uruguay, Nicaragua and El Salvador. It will be the preferred search choice on Telefonica in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.

Telefonica also will integrate Yahoo's photo site Flickr and Yahoo Mail into its … Read more

Steve Jobs rallies Yahoo execs

Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs was brought in to Yahoo as a sort of motivational speaker at a managers' meeting on Friday, according to GigaOm.

And what did he say? Basically, that like Apple in its troubled days, Yahoo has valuable assets and just needs to execute. Easier said than done.

Kara Swisher at The Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital blog writes that co-founder and Chief Executive Jerry Yang, at the same meeting, talked about the Yahoo ecosystem, which includes: "the building out of Yahoo's ad network, taking advantage of its 'consumer insights'; the creation of … Read more

Yahoo shaking things up

TechCrunch has some scoops about a big management meeting set for Friday and a reorganization of Yahoo's entertainment division.

I checked in with Yahoo and was told that yes, there will be a meeting tomorrow with company execs. Here's the statement Yahoo is giving reporters: "Jerry Yang and Sue Decker are committed to making significant changes in the way Yahoo operates to improve execution and build a winning culture. They are very focused on motivating and aligning key leaders throughout the company to achieve a clear set of goals, and tomorrow's senior management meeting will be … Read more

The Web search race heats up

The major search engines are notorious for their claims of out-doing each other. For years, Google and Yahoo battled it out over which had the largest index. Google eventually claimed the title two years ago, but Yahoo countered that relevancy is more important than size.

And this year, the features race is on, with interface and site overhauls either already done or in the works at the top four search providers.

Google's big search site update, in May, garnered headlines for its integration of image, video and other search types into one long list of Web results. And Ask.… Read more

Local search listings: put your business on the map, literally

Whether you have multiple locations or just one, local is fast becoming an important market online. Traditionally, the local marketing battlefield consisted of phone directory listings, billboards, newspapers, TV, radio, and anywhere else that made sense to get your name seen. The web and search engines have opened up a new local battlefield, and smart businesses are moving quickly to gain a foothold.

Surprisingly though, many businesses have failed to tap into one of the more powerful tools available for reaching the local market. If that's surprising, then what makes this amazing is that this tool is free and … Read more

Inquisitor makes Web searches easier for Mac

Just about everyone gets around the Web using one search engine or another, with most using Google or Yahoo as their preferred search sites. We've come a long way from when sites would display information and we would obediently follow their recommendations on the Web (think AOL). Now we'll think of something (a vacation destination, a person, a product, etc.) and enter it into a search engine to find out more. There have always been search sites, but I really think the concept of the term "Google it" is what transformed our Internet use into what it is today. With most people using a search engine as their home page these days, it's no wonder Google and other search engines are doing so well now.

Several browsers capitalized on search-engine use by adding a search box to the browser's interface. I use the search box in Safari all the time, but today I found a little application that makes Safari's search box even more convenient.… Read more

Google remains king of search

Hitwise released statistics today that showed Google has nearly 64 percent of the U.S. search market, compared to Yahoo's 23 percent, Microsoft's 8 percent and Ask's 3.5 percent. Year-over-year, Google's share inched up, Asks' and Yahoo's were fairly flat and Microsoft lost market share, nearly 4 percentage points.

Meanwhile, Nielsen/NetRatings figures for August 2007 put Google at 53.6 percent U.S. market share, Yahoo at 20 percent, Microsoft at 13 percent and AOL at 5.6 percent.

Zero-day exploits attack Yahoo, AOL instant messengers

Zero-day exploit codes targeting Yahoo and AOL instant-messenger services could put frequent IM users at risk to new attacks.

A non-vendor disclosed vulnerability within Yahoo Messenger has been exploited by two different code releases Wednesday. This is the third security glitch for Yahoo Messenger in as many months. There is no workaround or patch available yet for these exploits.

A second non-vendor disclosed vulnerability in AOL Instant Messenger targets how users are notified of new IMs. Security vendor Secunia recommends that current AIM users disable that option until a patch is available.

ZDNet blogger Ryan Naraine has more information and … Read more