Although the blog results component for Yahoo News searches has vanished from the site, it should return after some tweaking to it has been completed.

Who left the blogs out?

Yahoo's blogger Jeremy Zawodny noted in response to Om Malik's question about the missing blog results that Yahoo did kill blog search. "I suggested we blog about it, but sadly that didn't happen," he wrote.

Greg Jarboe observed what was happening last week with Yahoo News. Within about 48 hours, news photos had replaced the blog search beta results in Yahoo News search results.

Jarboe did find out from a Yahoo spokesperson, by phone and by email, that the missing blog results should return in some form:

Brian Nelson, a Yahoo spokesperson, called me back to say the Blogs beta had been "temporarily taken offline to retool the offering."
In an email sent a short while later, he added, "Maybe this goes without saying, (but) blog content remains an important part of our overall news and news search strategy. It's worth mentioning again because I've read speculation in the blogosphere about what Y! might be thinking bigger picture when it comes to blog content."
Speculation indeed. Much of that has likely been overshadowed by the recent announcement of Google's hosted communications package, which has seen plenty of commentary for the past twenty-four hours.

That kind of coverage may be what Yahoo wants to fine-tune when it comes to presenting blog search results alongside the news. Jarboe commented that it might be a matter of traffic to noise that Yahoo wants to improve.

Perhaps Yahoo will take a page out of Technorati's book and only present results with a great amount of "authority," that being judged by the number of quality inbound links a blog has. That would seem like something Yahoo should be able to do with its search technology now.

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Tag: Yahoo News

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The advent of the always-connected workforce has spurred a management researcher to ponder the liability of employers who take advantage of employee's "propensity toward workaholism and technology addiction" as employees remain on-call even during leisure time.

In a forthcoming study, Rutgers University School of Business professor Gayle Porter warns that the fast pace of technology-enhanced work environments creates a source of stimulation that could be addictive.

If so, employers who encourage non-stop Blackberry use could face liability for contributing to their staff's addiction.

From: workaholic@blackberry.overwork.com
Subject: one sec
To: whipcrackinboss@overwork.com
got your mssg. on space mountain with daughtrrrrrrrrrrr…sorry, big drop…will b n touch soon as ride is over CURVE! hard to hear with all this screaming…thx, Al B. Dedsoon.
"There are costs attached to excessive work due to technology," said Porter. "Information and communication technology (ICT) addiction has been treated by policy makers as a kind of elephant in the room -- everyone sees it, but no one wants to acknowledge it directly. Owing to vested interests of the employers and the ICT industry, signs of possible addiction -- excess use of ICT and related stress illnesses -- are often ignored."

Technology addiction is potentially "devastating," she says, equating the mental health impact to the damage caused by chemical or substance addictions. Corrective actions stop short of legislation, however.

"It may be unfeasible to regulate how much people use technology," said Porter. "However, it is reasonable to imagine a time when policy-makers recognize the powerful influence of employers that sometimes results in harmful excess among the workforce. The pressure for using technology to stay connected 24/7 may carry employer responsibility for detrimental outcomes to the employees."

According to the researchers, the key to determining liability is finding the line between employee choice and employer manipulation.

"If people work longer hours for personal enrichment, they assume the risk," she said. "However, if an employer manipulates an individual's propensity toward workaholism or technology addiction for the employer's benefit, the legal perspective shifts. When professional advancement (or even survival) seems to depend on 24/7 connectivity, it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between choice and manipulation."

Porter is unaware of current court cases regarding the issue, but admonishes that employers with concerns for the health of their employees should encourage them to "walk away" from the Blackberries, email, and cell phones while on vacation.

Labor, Technology addiction

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Canadian telecom regulators denied the request of a Jewish human rights lawyer, asking the government to allow Internet service providers to block access to U.S.-based white supremacist's websites.

The request was filed last week on behalf Richard Warman, whose address was posted on Virginia-based neo-Nazi Bill White's Blogspot blog and a website, with the directive to take violent action against him.

Also on the two sites, White called for the "violent overthrow" of the Canadian government and the extermination of all Jewish people in the country. Warman was singled out for allegedly masterminding a conspiratorial offensive against a Canadian white supremacist.

Warman, with the backing of the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) and telecom consultant Mark Goldberg, petitioned the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to block the site out of fear for Warman's safety.

But the CRTC denied the request, saying it raised "serious and fundamental issues" about the scope of the commission's powers. Further, Canadian carriers should be provided with the opportunity to express their views on the matter before action is taken.

The CJC argued that the content violated the Canadian Criminal Code and expressed "disappointment" in the committee's decision.

"In our view, the content on these web sites clearly breaches Canada's Criminal Code, and we are deeply disappointed that the CRTC did not accept its responsibility to respond to a private citizen's complaint," said CJC National President Ed Morgan.

Telecommunications industry, Hate speech

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Google debuted its Apps for Your Domain as a hosted communications option for domain owners, and it is being touted in some places as a gauntlet being tossed down in challenge to Microsoft.

The headlines say it, so it must be true. Google has taken the fight directly to Microsoft on the software front. Here are a trio of headlines sounding the call to arms:

Google to target software market, BBC News
Google plans new challenge to Microsoft, MarketWatch
Google takes aim at Microsoft with apps bundle, Houston Chronicle

Yes, the headline copywriters are having an absolute field day with Google Apps for Your Domain, a mostly communication-oriented bundling of services that can be branded and managed for a domain from a web-based administration interface. Gmail, Google Talk, Google Calendar, and the Google Page Creator comprise the free service.

This gives a domain owner a way to get a group of people connected with email and instant messaging, It offers a method of keeping track of what everyone is doing on a given day. For domains that lack a website, the Page Creator provides an easy way to place some pages online.

All of the parts of the Apps package work very well, and Gmail has been especially popular. The services all feature very clean designs that focus on utility and usability. About the closest Google gets to frills is the feed display appearing in Gmail that scrolls through various customizable news items.

For startups or established businesses that do not want to incur the cost of either a Microsoft Exchange and Outlook installation, or to pay for hosted services delivering that type of functionality, Google Apps can provide similar functionality for free.

Similar, but not equal. For Google Apps to really be a contender on the enterprise messaging side, even for a small company, Gmail needs a little tighter integration with Calendar than just the ability to add events from the Gmail inbox to it.

Google does have a few other pieces of the productivity suite puzzle available. The Writely word processor recently opened registration to anyone who is interested. Google's Spreadsheets can do sorting and formulas, but not macros.

One part of Google's announcement has made a lot of tech writers very excited, though. From the statement: "A premium version of the product is being developed for organizations with more advanced needs. More information, including details on pricing, will be available soon."

In other words, stay tuned. Maybe the Microsoft Office competitor is just around the corner.

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Tag: Google

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BellSouth had planned to continue collecting a $2.97 per month fee from its 3.2 million DSL customers, even though that fee had been originally collected for the federal government's Universal Service Fund.

When the Federal Communications Commission changed in August 2005 how it would treat DSL service, it eliminated the requirement for providers like BellSouth and Verizon to collect that fee.

But instead of simply removing the fee from customers' bills, both telecoms chose to continue collecting it themselves. BellSouth planned to keep charging the same $2.97 monthly fee to customers, while Verizon dropped a few pennies from what the USF fee had been in planning to keep it on customer bills.

An AP report has now noted that BellSouth decided to eliminate plans to persist in collecting that fee. Pressure from the FCC may have helped, as the agency inquired of both BellSouth and Verizon why their continued collection was not a violation of truth-in-billing laws.

BellSouth issued a statement where they chose to forgo the new charge:

Today, BellSouth announced that it is immediately eliminating a fee assessed on its DSL Internet services. As described on BellSouth's website, the broadband fee was designed to recover a number of costs remaining from previous regulatory obligations and other network expenses that increase the cost of the Internet services we provide to consumers.
Verizon has resisted following BellSouth on this reversal, according to the report:

Verizon said the new fee is needed to recover costs related to offering the high-speed Internet service.
"We would have no comment on it other than to say obviously we will explain to them (the FCC) whatever it is they want to have explained," said Verizon spokesman Brian Blevins.
Since the FCC has confirmed to AP that it sent Verizon a letter of inquiry, it looks like they will have to explain it in Washington:

FCC spokeswoman Tamara Lipper said Friday that the agency prefers to let competitive forces govern the markets with minimum government regulation but is "willing and quick to act to protect consumers."

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Tags: BellSouth, DSL Fee

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The revamped Google Webmaster Central has enough changes in place that it merits a second look for our readers.

The latest update to the Official Google Blog comes from a familiar name. Vanessa Fox, the Google product manager working with the company's Webmaster Central, along with search evangelist Adam Lasnik, posted a recap regarding the service.

Webmasters who have been using Google Sitemaps to improve the indexing of their sites already know about the name change from Sitemaps to Webmaster Central Some may have missed the new blog for the service. Fox posts items like advice on handling Googlebot's visits to a domain and other issues.

Googlers like Fox and webmasters can be found on the Webmaster Central group. The group hosts discussions on topics from crawling to Sitemaps to suggestions and feature requests.

Despite the name change, the Sitemaps remain the same. Fox restated this in the post:

For those of you who've already established a Google sitemap, have no fear: the Sitemaps protocol remains unchanged and Sitemaps submission mechanisms and reporting is still available from the Sitemaps tab. If you haven't already added a Sitemap, you might want to learn more about it.
Fox also noted one significant change made to site indexing that webmasters have wanted for some time, by enabling webmasters to designate whether or not they want their sites indexed with or without the www prefix for domain names.

Although once upon a time it was customary for domains to always have that leading prefix, many now prefer to use something different or not use it when it comes to the indexing process. That preference, and lots of useful information, may be viewed through Sitemaps.

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Tag: Google Webmaster Central

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Frustrated customers often threaten that they'll never shop at a store again. Now, a number of online retailers have become angry at eBay, and many of them claim they'll never again sell on the site.

This is due to a rate hike recently implemented, which resulted in a number of protests and boycotts, as well.

eBay intended for at least some of this to occur - the fee increase was supposed to make selling items through a store less advantageous, as compared to selling them at open auction.

However, the online auction site probably didn't want sellers to abandon it entirely.

According to MarketWatch, the impact is already being felt.

"A number of former eBay merchandisers say they're shifting their listings to Amazon.com Inc., Google Inc. and its Google Base free classifieds listings, plus a host of other eBay competitors," writer Ben Charny stated.

At least one outsider thought the rate hike was a bad idea.

The same article included a "notably dour prediction about the effort" from Piper Jaffray & Co analyst Safa Rashtchy: "eBay is plagued by other problems that a fee increase won't cure."

The fee increase is arguably creating (or at least exacerbating) some problems. One group has grown so frustrated with eBay that it named itself "Google We Need An Auction Site."

In the last ten days, the group has gained 99 new members.

eBay's numbers have been slipping for some time now. "During the second quarter ending July 19, eBay said its profit dropped 14% from a year earlier. Shares of eBay closed down $1.22, or 4.5%, at $25.78," MarketWatch reported.

If the rate hike fails, expect the slide to continue.

Tag: eBay

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When in doubt about proper market exposure, flood it. Looking for every possible way to profit from the purchase of MySpace.com, News Corp., like a good business, is mulling over the profitability of a MySpace magazine aimed at the new generation of hipsters.

Ad Age reports the magazine would most likely be published by the same force behind music mag Nylon, who recently partnered with MySpace on another print venture.

MySpace the Magazine would feature "standout MySpace members," which assumedly would mean MySpace musicians, people with the most friends (?), MySpace generation interests, and social scenes.

And most likely a complete dictionary of the latest IM speak, regularly updated with latest IM slang and krumpin' tips, a la the latest incarnation of Bring It On.

According to the article, MySpace's main concern is its brand and how not to hurt it.

But one might imagine the advertising money could outweigh that concern. This would be a prime target for Google, who just sealed a sweet-heart deal with MySpace, for expanding its AdWords for print experiment.

MySpace

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The first rule of Write Club is: do not anger the feminists. The second rule is: do not anger the blogosphere. And if you're stupid enough to anger the feminists bloggers, be prepared for the beating of your life. A little evidence to back up what you've suspected for a long time should be saved for the poker game, not for Forbes readers.

Forbes.com columnist Michael Noer is suddenly famous - make that infamous. His column warning men not to marry career women earned him a segment on this morning's Today show. Let's delve, shall we?

…recent studies have found professional women are more likely to get divorced, more likely to cheat, less likely to have children, and, if they do have kids, they are more likely to be unhappy about it. A recent study in Social Forces, a research journal, found that women--even those with a "feminist" outlook--are happier when their husband is the primary breadwinner.
Man, there are just some things you don't say outside the locker room, free country or not, especially when it follows an exploration of whether or not wives are just more expensive hookers, "something akin to champagne or beer."

Another gem:

After all, your typical career girl is well-educated, ambitious, informed and engaged. All seemingly good things, right? Sure…at least until you get married. Then, to put it bluntly, the more successful she is the more likely she is to grow dissatisfied with you. Sound familiar?
Maybe to Noer, but to a trove of bloggers, and to his Forbes colleagues, it didn't sound familiar at all, unless we turn back the politically correct clock. Forbes quickly pulled the editorial and then reposted it with a counterpoint from Elizabeth Corcoran entitled "Don't Marry A Lazy Man."

Corcoran skirts the critical theory of critical theory that sympathizes with men who feel marginalized by their unfair portrayal in TV sitcoms (she doesn't mention sitcoms, but wait, I'm going somewhere with this).

Think hard and try to name one positive TV dad, and Bill Cosby doesn't count. On TV, men are oafish, shortsighted, sexist, insensitive, selfish, impatient, lazy, fat, bad cooks, worse housekeepers, and would be in danger of losing their wives to the sexy rich guy at work if their wives didn't have a kind of sympathetic (and matronly) affection for them. You know, because you don't hold the mentally challenged to the same standard as everybody else.

"If he can pick up new ideas faster than your puppy, you've got a winner," writes Corcoran.

But Corcoran's husband's different, she points out, as probably most other husbands out there are different. The same goes for career women, and that's the point. You can't just go around pigeon-holing people, and you can't expect to say what you're thinking without ticking somebody off - like the Huffington Post, Gawker, and especially at BlogHer, where some are calling for a boycott of Forbes. Sorry, they're calling for a "girlcott."

In addition to a wealth of name-calling, bloggers suspect Noer's presentation to be based on selective and questionable social science studies, as well as (maybe) a marriage gone sour - hence all the focus on whorish and fickle career women.

Besides the stupidity, the heated arguments and the backlash, Noer's Bane did illustrate one very important point, though perhaps not the point he was striving toward, while vindicating another Forbes writer. In 2005, Daniel Lyons equated the blogosphere to "an online lynch mob," which earned him the business end of a blogosphere in denial of the greater truth.

No target is too mighty, or too obscure, for this new and virulent strain of oratory. Microsoft has been hammered by bloggers; so have CBS, CNN and ABC News, two research boutiques that criticized IBM's Notes software, the maker of Kryptonite bike locks, a Virginia congressman outed as a homosexual and dozens of other victims--even a right-wing blogger who dared defend a blog-mob scapegoat.
But also it brings a larger point. Forbes did the right thing the second time by reposting the article with a rebuttal. It is, after all, about free speech. Noer can say what he wants, even if it's stupid, and expect not to be silenced - even if critics in the blogosphere would deny him the same that they enjoy.

Just as the online retailer expanded its web service offerings with its S3 Simple Storage Service, Amazon now offers the Elastic Compute Cloud, a virtual machine for developers to use.

If there is going to be an incrementing of Web 2.0, Amazon.com may be the company clicking the counter that flips it to the next number. Their release of the EC2 limited beta, called Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, provides a virtual computing environment and bills only for what capacity is used.

The virtual machine image created by developers can be controlled through web service APIs. As needed, more instances of the image can be commissioned to run simultaneously, numbering hundreds or even thousands. They can be configured to scale up and down in number automatically, based on needs.

Amazon said on its site the EC2 service has been designed to work with S3, which gives developers storage and computing in a combined package. An EC2 instance provides the equivalent of a system with a 1.7Ghz Xeon CPU, 1.75GB of RAM, 160GB of local disk, and 250Mb/s of network bandwidth, according to their documentation.

These instances, dubbed Amazon Machine Images, can be created from scratch from among a number of building block AMIs like web, application, and database servers. Several globally available AMIs that have been preconfigured can be chosen for use to serve a given purpose, without needing to build a custom AMI.

Once created, the developer would upload the instance to the S3 service, and register the AMI. Amazon then assigns it a unique identifier to it. Users can run, monitor, and terminate instances by using the identifier along with the EC2 web service APIs to do so.

Together, S3 and EC2 have a cost structure that could benefit the next cash-poor but idea-rich entrepreneurs who want to build an online service without incurring the massive debt many take on in the form of credit card loans, second mortgages, and other money-raising ideas.

Maybe the next Amazon.com will come from Amazon's web services.

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Tags: Amazon, Elastic, Compute, Cloud

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