Weekly Rap-up of Search Engine Industry News – 10/8 – 10/12

Coca-Cola, Hewlett-Packard and IBM, Google acquires Twitter-like service, Jaiku, for an undisclosed amount, The Associated press sues Moreover for linking to their stories, the House Judiciary Committee supports the Internet Freedom Act and extends the ban on Internet access tax for four more years, and finally, Yahoo! Site Explorer now requires that you authenticate a site before receiving full information on data.

Monday

• MSNBC.com Acquires Newsvine For Undisclosed Suym – In their first acquisition, MSNBC.com, a 50/50 joint venture between Microsoft and NBC, has acquired Newsvine in an all cash deal. The price tag of the acquisition is not being disclosed. Newsvine, which was started in March 2006, is a community driven news site with stories from the Associated Press, ESPN and New Scientist as well as individual contributors from all around the world. Mike Davidson, the founder of Newsvine, said that the companies will continue operating separately but that technology integration will occur over time.

Tuesday

• Google Stock Surpasses the $600 Mark - Search Engine Journal is one of many blogs and news sites to report that Google stock has surpassed the $600 mark. Their stock reached $610.26 before slipping back to $609.62. Google is all set to come out with their revenue report this month on October 18th via webcast. What is even more amazing is that Google’s net worth has touched $190 billion which puts it ahead of companies like Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola., Hewlett-Packard and IBM. Can you say, “Wow!”

• Google Acquires Jaiku – Jaiku, the Twitter-like service has been acquired by Google for an undisclosed amount. As to why Google would want this new start-up, Jaiku Founders, Jyri Engeström and Petteri Koponen explain it like this: “Activity streams and mobile presence are important areas where we believe Google can add a lot of value for users. Jaiku’s technology and talented team are a great addition to Google’s current application and mobile teams.” I would think that this move will have Twitter founders watching closely over the coming months to see what Google does, if anything, with Jaiku. Also see the official Google press release.

Wednesday

• Associated Press Suing Moreover For Linking To Them - WTH? It’s true – The Associated Press is suing news-aggregation site Moreover and its parent company VeriSign for copyright infringement for snippeting and linking to its news. “This harkens back to the early days of the Internet when news aggregators were routinely legally hassled for linking,” reports WebProNews. As a blogger that frequently links to other news sources, this will be a case I’ll watch closely. IF AP wins, I suppose everyone will fear linking to them or referencing stories, however the entire notion is so prehistoric (or pre-Internet). Much of the law regarding this issue is still not completely settled, however publishers generally rely on the fair use principle that small snippets linking to a story are permissible. WebProNews has more details including snippets from the legal filing itself.

Thursday

• House Judiciary Committee Supports Ban on Internet Tax - WebProNews reports that House Judiciary Committee voted unanimously yesterday to approve an amendment to the Internet Tax Freedom Act. The amendment would extend the ban on Internet access taxes until November 1, 2011. The current ban is scheduled to end on November 1st. Internet service providers including Verizon Communications, Comcast, and Web companies such as Google favor making the Internet access tax ban permanent. House Republican Whip Roy Blunt echoed the sentiment saying, “If Democrats think that extending the Internet tax moratorium for an additional four years is a good thing, then why not go the extra mile and make it permanent?”

Friday

• Yahoo!’s Site Explorer Now Requires Authentication For Full Data - Barry Schwartz points out that Yahoo! Site Explorer shows different data counts depending on whether you “authenticate” your site or not. It used to be that one could get full site data including pages indexed and inbound links as a random user. You can still get that data but it appears to be selective. Barry shows examples of data for Search Engine Roundtable as a random guest and as an authenticate user. Obviously pages indexed and inbound link data increase when authenticated. So it appears that Yahoo is now requiring webmasters to authenticate their sites to view full details of pages indexed and inbound link data, much in the same way Google requires authentication through Webmaster Central.