GOOGLE WANTS TO LAUNCH A TWITTER SEARCH, AMAZON HAS TO PAY UP TO TOYS R US,
AND MICROSOFT WANTS TO BE YOUR NEW FASHION STYLIST. ITS MONDAY, JUNE 15TH. I'M
NATALI DEL CONTE, COMING TO YOU FROM SAN FRANCISCO THIS WEEK. IT'S TIME TO GET
LOADED.
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MICROSOFT HAS DECIDED THAT IT WILL SELL WINDOWS 7 IN EUROPE WITHOUT A BROWSER.
THE COMPANY HAS BEEN UNDER ATTACK FOR PRE-PACKAGING INTERNET EXPLORER WITH
WINDOWS FOR SO LONG THAT THEY HAVE DECIDED TO PULL THE RATHER BRATTY MOVE OF
JUST DELETING IT FROM THE OPERATING SYSTEM, WHICH LAUNCHES ON OCTOBER 22ND. SO
YOU GET YOUR NEW OPERATING SYSTEM, TRY TO GET ONLINE...HOW DO YOU DO IT? TRUE,
YOU CAN CHOOSE ANY BROWSER NOW. BUT HOW DO YOU INSTALL ONE WITHOUT A BROWSER?
MICROSOFT WILL PROBABLY JUST BUNDLE A PHYSICAL CD WITH THE BROWSER, WHICH A
BIG WASTE OF RESOURCES. I DON'T THINK THIS IS THE FINAL PACKAGE SOLUTION FOR
WINDOWS 7 BUT IF IT IS, WHAT A PAIN.
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SPEAKING OF MICROSOFT, THE COMPANY HAS APPLIED FOR A RATHER UNUSUAL PATENT
CALLED ONLINE PERSONAL APPEARANCE ADVISOR. THE APPLICATION DESCRIBES IT AS A
PROGRAM IN WHICH THE "contributor uploads self images for viewing and rating
(or voting) by viewers who choose to provide an opinion on different fashion
and/or cosmetic looks of the contributor." YOU MIGHT BE THINKING: WHY DOES
MICROSOFT CARE IF YOUR SHOES MATCH YOUR OUTFIT? THE ONLY THING I COULD COME UP
WITH WAS THAT PERHAPS THIS MUST BE FOR NATAL. AFTER ALL, THE MARKETING VIDEO
DID SHOW A TEENY BOPPER TRYING ON PROM DRESSES.
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OK, ONE LAST MICROSOFT STORY. IT HAS TO DO WITH BING. MICROSOFT'S NEW SEARCH
ENGINE NOW FILTERS OUT PORN. BING CAME UNDER FIRE FOR NOT DOING THIS SINCE ITS
LAUNCH A FEW SHORT WEEKS AGO. A REVISION OF THE PROGRAM ALLOWS PARENTS TO
BLOCK OR MONITOR WHAT THEIR KIDS ARE VIEWING. ACCORDING TO THE POST: "explicit
images and video content will now be coming from a separate single domain,
explicit.bing.net. This is invisible to the end customer, but allows for
filtering of that content by domain, which makes it much easier for customers
at all levels to block this content regardless of what the SafeSearch settings
might be."
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AMAZON HAS BEEN ORDERED TO PAY TOYS R US $51 MILLION TO SETTLE A 5-YEAR-OLD
LAWSUIT. THE SUIT WAS OVER A DEAL BETWEEN THE TWO RETAILERS WHICH WOULD HAVE
MADE TOYS R US THE EXCLUSIVE TOY PROVIDER FOR AMAZON. AFTER THIS DEAL WAS MADE
IN 2000, AMAZON BEGAN USING OTHER TOY RETAILERS BECAUSE THEY CLAIMED THAT TOYS
R US COULD NOT KEEP UP WITH INVENTORY. THIS PARTNERSHIP WAS SUPPOSED TO LAST
THROUGH 2010. TOYS R US WANTED $93 MILLION BUT INSTEAD THEY GET $51, PAYABLE
Q3, WHICH STARTS ON JULY 1.
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GOOGLE IS MAKING SOME CHANGES TO THE WAY THEY DO STREET VIEW IN EUROPE,
FOLLOWING MANY PRIVACY COMPLAINTS BY THE EU. ONE CHANGE IS THAT THEY HAVE TO
GIVE COMMUNITIES ADVANCED NOTICE WHEN THE CAMERA-EQUIPPED VANS ARE COMING
THROUGH. THIS IS HOW GOOGLE CAPTURES IMAGES FOR STREET VIEW AND EUROPEANS DO
NOT WANT TO BE CAUGHT WITH THEIR PANTS DOWN...LITERALLY. EUROPEAN REGULATORS
ALSO WANT GOOGLE TO SET A TIME LIMIT FOR HOW LONG THE RAW IMAGES ARE HELD ON
GOOGLE SERVERS. GOOGLE BLURS OUT FACES AND OTHER SENSITIVE INFORMATION BUT
THOSE UNBLURRED IMAGES STILL RESIDE WITH GOOGLE. THE EU DOESN'T LIKE THAT BUT
GOOGLE HAS NOT AGREED TO A TIME LIMIT YET.
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IN OTHER GOOGLE NEWS, THE COMPANY IS SAID TO BE WORKING ON A MICROBLOGGING
SEARCH ENGINE...SO BASICALLY A TWITTER SEARCH. WHEN BLOGGING TOOK OFF, GOOGLE
LAUNCHED GOOGLE BLOG SEARCH. THIS WOULD BE A NATURAL EXTENSION OF THAT. OF
COURSE TWITTER HAS ITS OWN SEARCH ENGINE BUT IT IS LIMITED TO JUST TWITTER AND
IT SORTS RESULTS BY DATE, NOT KEYWORDS. GOOGLE'S REPORTED MICROBLOG SEARCH
WOULD SORT BY RELEVANCY AND BE INTEGRATED WITH GOOGLE'S WEB SEARCH.
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YOU DON'T HAVE TO HAVE FANCY EQUIPMENT TO TWITTER. A MAN NAMED JOHAN VAN DEN
BRANDE IS DOING IT FROM A COMMODORE 64. IN THIS YOUTUBE VIDEO, HE CAN BE SEEN
TWITTERING OH-SO-SLOWLY FROM HIS 1982 MACHINE CONNECTED TO A TV. DON'T SEND
HIM ANY LINKS OR VIDEOS THOUGH. I DON'T THINK HE WILL BE SENDING OR CLICKING
ANY TINY-URL'S FROM THERE.
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THOSE ARE ALL OF YOUR HEADLINES FOR TODAY. I WILL SEE YOU TOMORROW WITH MORE. THANK
YOU FOR WATCHING. I'M NATALI DEL CONTE WITH CNETTV AND YOU JUST BEEN LOADED.
