<IT WORLD>
Internet domination dance becomes a crowd
By Martin J Young

HUA HIN, Thailand - In the ongoing battle for Internet domination, Microsoft has put on the gloves to take on Yahoo should the company continue to reject its takeover bid. A proxy fight has been threatened and a deadline set for an acquisition agreement if Yahoo does not authorize its management to enter into negotiations. Yahoo has been given three weeks until Microsoft heads directly for its target's shareholders in an effort to replace the company's board of directors.

The board held emergency meetings last weekend to discuss this latest Microsoft move, but the current offer of just over US$29 a share will be rejected. A fall in Microsoft's stock price makes the proposal worth slightly less than the original bid of $31 per share. Yahoo chairman Jerry Yang stated publicly that the board is open to alternatives that "maximize" shareholder value, in other words a higher bid. Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer refuses to raise the offer as no other companies have made a bid or shown an interest in the Internet stalwart.

In a move possibly orchestrated to frustrate Microsoft even further, Yahoo has agreed to an experimental ad sharing system with rivals Google. During the two-week pilot, Google will be placing its own ads alongside 3% of all search results pages generated by Yahoo. Microsoft responded by stating that any permanent deal between the two Internet giants would not be in consumers' interest since the deal would consolidate over 90% of the search advertising market to Google, which already enjoys the lion's share of it. Analysts claim that Yahoo has played a good card by forcing a higher bid from Microsoft on the back of its increasing share prices, which rose 7% following the announcement this week.

In the blue corner, the plot thickens as Microsoft and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp are to enter into talks regarding a joint bid for Yahoo. Should it proceed, this deal would create an Internet, news media, social networking and advertising behemoth combining Yahoo, Microsoft's MSN, News Corp's MySpace and Fox Interactive Media unit, a beast even the mighty Google empire would have a hard time slaying.

With financial backing from Murdoch, Microsoft could effectively increase its bid and put even more pressure onto Yahoo's shareholders.

Back in the red corner, there have been rumors and reports of a possible merger between America Online and Yahoo. According to the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal, the plan would offer Yahoo shareholders an alternative to Microsoft's hostile bids and deadlines.

Under the terms being discussed, Time Warner would fold its AOL division into Yahoo and, along with a cash investment, acquire about 20% of the total entity. Yahoo would then use the cash to buy back its own stock in an effort to increase share prices again and demand a higher bid.

So the drawn out game of cyber-chess continues, with neither side looking to back down. As more players get drawn into the dance, the likelihood for the future of the Internet is that there will be one entity that rules them all.

Internet
Well, we knew it would happen sooner or later - Google has finally been sued over its online Street View images. A Pennsylvanian couple sued the search giant, claiming that pictures of their house on the web had devalued the property.

The Franklin Park home was bought by Aaron and Christine Boring in October 2006 and has since appeared on Google's Street View service. The husband and wife claim the pictures violate their privacy as they have been taken from their long driveway, signposted "Private Road" - Google obviously didn't agree or did not read the sign. A Google spokesman stated that property owners can get images removed from the site if they can give a good enough reason and prove ownership.

The Borings' attorney said the point was that Google drove onto their property to get the images, thus violating privacy. He added that removing the image will not undo the damage or deter Google from doing it again elsewhere. According to the county real estate website, which also has photos of the house, the couple paid $163,000 for the 984 square meter home, a large portion of which was for additional privacy.

Consequently, the couple were not amused to find panoramic views of their swimming pool on the Internet. Google has yet to comment on the legal validity of the case. The dangers of online privacy violations were highlighted in Google eye too close for comfort (Asia Times Online, March 15, 2008) when we examined the ramifications of the roving spy.

In a bit of good news from the Google Earth camp, the US company is to put its skills to work in a more humanitarian way. A new partnership between Google and the United Nations aims to utilize satellite technology to show greater detail of refugee camps around the globe.

The initiative, launched in Geneva this week, will enable users to download an application for the viewing of refugee hotspots such as Chad, Iraq and Columbia. The potential to captivate a mass audience and help the world to recognize the plight of people otherwise hidden from the public eye is the driving force of the initiative.

Software
Microsoft this week said it plans to extend its support of Windows XP, as many users are still clinging to the diehard operating system because their machines aren't powerful enough to run Vista.

Original plans were for the cessation of sales on June 30 this year following the launch of Vista early last year. Subsequent to its launch in October 2001, Windows XP has become the best-selling operating system ever, so persuading people to upgrade has been an uphill battle for the software vendor.

At the same time, a slew of new low-cost PCs for the budget market simply does not have the innards to run Vista. Part of the reprieve will allow computer manufacturers to continue to preinstall Windows XP Home onto systems up until mid-2010, or a year after Microsoft has rolled out its Vista successor, Windows 7. Bill Gates has hinted the possible release date for Windows 7 may be as early as next year, although on past performance it is likely to emerge in 2010 or later.

Support will not extend to XP Pro or any other edition, which will come under the ax this year as planned. The category of computer only applies to what Microsoft considers to be low-end, so consumers will not be able to specify that they want XP on any machine they order.

By Microsoft's own standards, a ULCPC (ultra low cost PC) will generally be sub-$400 laptops such as the Asus Eee and those used by the One Laptop Per Child program, which are expected to be popular in emerging markets such as India and China.

Many of these lower-end machines were originally designed to run Linux, but Microsoft states its decision to throw XP Home a lifeline is unrelated. Since other versions of XP have not been given increased longevity, we find this claim a little difficult to swallow.

Martin J Young is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand.