services

Yelp is taking aim at business owners that try to artificially inflate their reviews on the site.

The user-reviews site today announced today that it has launched a new initiative to root out companies that have made "significant attempts to pay for reviews." In the event it finds such attempts, Yelp will post a "consumer alert" on a company posting alerting users to the violation.

"We caught someone red-handed trying to buy reviews for this business," the alert reads. "We weren't fooled, but wanted you to know because buying reviews not only … Read more

Now you see it, now you don't.

Just over a month after car-hailing service Uber launched support for taxi service in New York City, the company is pulling out, CEO Travis Kalanick confirmed to CNET in an e-mailed statement today. All mention of taxi service in New York City has also been removed from the company's Web site.

"We did the best we could to get more yellows on the road but New York's TLC (Taxi and Limousine Commission) put up obstacles and roadblocks in order to squash the effort around e-hail which they privately have … Read more

Some Twitter users are unable to access the network this evening, getting instead a greeting from its fail whale.

Some visitors to the site reported getting a message that the site was "over capacity," an issue Twitter confirmed this evening.

"Users may be experiencing issues accessing Twitter. Our engineers are currently working to resolve the issue," the company said in a status update this evening.

A quick survey of Downforeveryoneorjustme and Downrightnow found that Twitter was being reported as "up" and experiencing "possible service trouble," respectively.

Microsoft plans to use the full force of its dominant Windows operating system to challenge iTunes and Spotify in the digital music business.

The software giant has baked its new 30-million-track Xbox Music service into Windows 8, making it the default way for users to listen to songs. The service, which CNET first reported in February and the company announced in June, will let users stream music for free, creating custom playlists, as long as they're willing to hear occasional ads. They can also subscribe to an ad-free version for $9.99 a month. And users can buy and … Read more

One of the creators of Skype has announced a new addition to his digital music service Rdio.

Janus Friis says the Rdio Artist Program is designed to give musicians a better alternative to iTunes Match or Spotify, where some complain that commission rates based on the number of times a song is streamed leaves an artist with almost nothing.

With Rdio, uploaders earn $10 for every new subscriber they lure to the service. The platform pays artists to share both music and recommendations on social-networking sites including Facebook and Twitter -- promoting the company as well as themselves.

San Francisco-based … Read more

Google's special treatment in Kansas City has caught the attention of its competitors.

According to The Wall Street Journal, which obtained a copy of agreements on file with the city government, Google was offered everything from free office space to a team of government employees "dedicated" to the development of its Gigabit Internet service. In addition, the company is able to use all city "assets and infrastructure -- including fiber, buildings, land, and computer tools" for free, the Journal has learned.

Although the deal was great for Google, it has become an issue for competitors … Read more

The Swedish police seem to be going straight to the source in their battle against copyright infringement. According to Forbes, the country's authorities raided the Stolckholm-based Web host PRQ, which is known for hosting some of the most popular outlaw sites on the Internet, including the Pirate Bay, Wikileaks, the North America Man-Boy Love Association, Pedophile.se, and the Chechen rebel site Kavkaz Central.

It's unclear why police raided PRQ, but its owner Mikael Viborg told the Swedish news outlet Nyheter24 that he believes the investigation had to do with intellectual property violations, according to TorrentFreak. Viborg also … Read more

While Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg wouldn't affirm whether or not Facebook could take on Google in the search arena, it's clear the social-networking giant thinks there's an untapped revenue stream in a social search product.

"I think people are surprised how much search is done on Facebook, you know, every day there's an enormous percentage of search. There's also a promise in the market that search could become more social that we don't think this has been met," she told CNBC this morning. "When you're looking for information, … Read more

Samsung Electronics is on the lookout for mobile-software companies it can acquire to strengthen the content it offers customers beyond what's available on its popular mobile devices such as the Galaxy series of smartphones and tablets.

Reuters reported Thursday that the Korean electronics giant will be buying its way into a better competitive position with Apple, Google, and Amazon in the digital-content space, particularly in the music market, which is worth nearly $9 billion.

"The message we're getting from the top is to raise software compatibility, and buy rather than build, if needed," Kang Tae-jin, senior … Read more