World News -- Benazir Bhutto Assassinated

Google's "Knowledge" Project Takes Aim At Wikepedia

Matt Cutts of Google and Vanessa Fox talk to WebProNews

WebProNews catches up with the Head of Google’s Webspam Team and Software Engineer, Matt Cutts and the Features Editor of Search Engine Land, Vanessa Fox at PubCon 2007 in Las Vegas.

The interview spans a number of topics from two of the top names in the field. Both discuss page rank reduction, site hacking and how you can stop it. They also talk about subdomain changes, especially related to Google.

Fox tells us about her current endeavors and what she looks forward too in her career. Cutts and Fox talk about the changes in WebMasterTools as well and how they are expanding to different languages all over the world.

For all of the details of the interview, check out the video right here on WebProNews.



Of related interest:
Cutts, Sullivan weigh in on paid links

Miss World Crown: China Wins

Arrivederci Pavarotti

Becks & Posh and more news

Have You Got One Yet? I Mean The Apple iPhone!

This is what every Apple aficionado is looking forward to - the iPhone which went on sale initially in the U.S. on Friday (June 29).

What's so great about the iPhone that people would want to cough up $499USD for this much-hyped gadget? By now most of you would know that this device has all the bells and whistles you would want in your mobile phone.

Here are some of the main features: it's a quad-band mobile phone, has 4 to 8GB of memory depending on which model you go for, has internet access, an MP3 music player, a 2 megapixel digital camera, and more.

The iPhone is not a cheapo gadget just like most of Apple's products. But you can give a hat tip to Steve Jobs for his usual flair in selling Apple's stuff.

The best news related to the iPhone launch is that every Apple employee with more than one year's service in the company will get one free.

The iPhone will only go on sale in Europe later this year. Apple said they expected to sell more than 10 million iPhones by next year when it hit the Asian market.

Related articles:
Apple's iPhone Makes It To Store
Apple's 'magical' iPhone unveiled
iPhone a smash - because everyone else is stupid
Going gaga over Apple's iPhone

The Day Paris Hilton Smiled Again

American heiress Paris Hilton is smiling again. No more the screaming and crying when she was taken to jail. She has been released from jail in Los Angeles on Tuesday after serving 24 days.

No doubt, it was a media hoopla, as she waved at photographers and shook hands with well-wishers. Her parents, Kathy and Rick, were there to fetch their celebrity daughter home. Time for some bubbly and caviar.

Pro Wrestler Chris Benoit's Death Shock

The unexpected and bizzare death of pro wrestler Chris Benoit will come as a shock for his fans worldwide.

Benoit was found dead with his wife, Nancy, and seven-year-old son, Daniel, at their Fayetteville home on Monday (June 25). According to the World Wrestling Entertainment website, police have ruled the deaths as a double-murder suicide.

The WiredHound used to watch Benoit in action on SmackDown, RAW, WrestleMania and other wrestling circuits. It's a sad day, indeed.

Making Handbags From Old Newspapers

Wow! Bow wow! This Wiredhound is very, very impressed by this little piece of infonews. These handbags look good on the video clip. If they are as good as they come, who needs Gucci and all those other big names?

Wonder how much a handbag like this will cost?

Can Jerry Yang Turn Around Troubled Yahoo?

Jerry Yang: Taking the reins

Come to think of it, people don't "yahoo" for something on the Internet, instead they "google" for something on the Net.

That just about sums up why Yahoo is playing second fiddle to Google.

That's why Yahoo chief executive Terry Semel has been axed for not being able to take the company, founded by Jerry Yang and fellow-student David Filo 13 years ago, to the next level.

So now former Stanford University undergraduate student Jerry is taking over as CEO. The company has a reported turnover of $3.2b.

It has 12,000 employees on its payroll and its Internet portal attracts more than 500 million users.

But still, Yahoo is just an also-ran compared to Google, the market leader with sales that's 50% higher and its profits four times that of its older rival.


Semel: Dismissed

Where Semel has failed thus far, the question being asked in the industry is: Can the 38-year-old Yang pull all the stops and revitalize Yahoo?


Related article:
Can Yahoo revive its digital dreams?
(An analysis by Tim Webber, Business editor, BBC News website)

Author Salman Rushdie Gets A KnightHood

Sir Salman and actress wife Padma Lakshmi



The man who wrote the book, "The Satanic Verses," which offended Muslims worldwide and had a bounty placed on his head in 1989 has been knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

Indian-born author Salman Rushdie returned to public life in 1999 following a 1998 announcement by the Iranian government that it would no longer support the fatwa against the author.

Rushdie, who is a devout secularist, went into hiding under threat of death after the fatwa. Some groups still insisted that the fatwa is irrevocable.

Sir Salman was born into a Muslim family in Mumbai, India, in 1947, the son of a businessman. He had his education in England at Rugby School and studied history at Cambridge University.

He published his first novel, "Grimus", in 1975 but was generally ignored by the book-buying public and literary establishment. But his second book - the magic realist novel "Midnight's Children" - catapulted him to literary fame and winning him the Booker Prize in 1981. The novel was also awarded the Booker of Bookers in 1993.

Sir Salman turns 60 on June 19 (Tuesday). He was married to author Marianne Wiggins in 1988. They were divorced in 1993. He is now married to Indian actress Padma Lakshmi. (Sources: BBC and Wikipedia)

Watch It Bush! Now You See It, Now You Don't!

Clipping from NST,
Malaysia





President George W. Bush was certainly delighted by the tumultuous welcome he received from the Albanians on his visit to Tirana on Sunday. There was no stopping him glad-handing the joyous crowd in the Albanian capital.

As the crowd bustled about excitingly, even the most powerful man in the world has to keep a watch on his watch. As this photo sequence shows in this newspaper clipping from the New Straits Times, it was a case of Bush's watch going, going, and gone!

Did it really happen? I mean, did someone artfully removed his expensive watch?

Why not watch this video news clip from Reuters for the answer...

Chill Out: Cheers To Red, Red Wine!

Sometimes we do need to chill out like taking a break from blogging and pampering ourselves with a glass of wine and watching a good DVD movie.

Normally, coffee is my poison of choice while I blog late into the night. So once in a while I'll sit back and relax with my favorite Cabernet Sauvignon. This red wine is generally full-flavoured and has a smooth, lingering "finish".

I prefer red wine because numerous studies have indicated that it appears to protect the heart. No harm following doctor's order.

I have bookmarked a few interesting wine websites for personal information on the great varieties. And the latest one that was pointed out to me is Just Vineyards.com - a comprehensive and elegant website based on a nearly 5,000 record database of vineyards and wineries in all 50 U.S. states.



The site contains links to individual vineyards throughout the U.S. and also links to upcoming events, blogs and a wine search engine.

If you like your bubbly and want to know more about wine, you will not be disappointed by visiting this website which was launched recently at a time when the US wine industry is undergoing sweeping changes.

According to Wine Business Magazine, the American wine industry represents more than $162 billion in 2005.

According to the latest data from ACNielsen, American consumers are buying higher-priced wine than ever in the last 34 months.

Related post:
White Wine Fans, Raise Your Glasses!

From The NewsRoom: More Than A Music Store

How much do you know about the Apple iTunes platform? Okay, the iTunes Store site is one of the biggest repositories of songs, albums and music videos from major and Indie music labels, plus individual artists.

But do you know it's more than a music store? Here on this video, Wall Street Journal personal technology columnist Walt Mossberg talks about one of the least-understood aspects of Apple's iTunes software.

Why You And I Walk On Two Feet

Have you ever wondered why we, homo sapiens, walk on two feet?

Why aren't we like our four-legged friends, for example, like King, my neighbour's pet alsatian.

According to a study published in the journal Science, it says that upright walking was always a feature of ape behaviour.

British authors Susannah Thorpe, Robin Crompton and Roger Holder arrived at this conclusion after analysing the movement of wild orangutans. As we all know, these apes spend most of their lives in trees, unless they are from another planet.

These authors believe that knuckle-walking is a recent evolution - a way to get around the forest floor. The new theory suggests that our ancestors began walking upright while they were still living in trees.

On the study, Prof Daniel Lieberman, a biological anthropologist from Harvard University, told BBC News: "I think it's a neat paper; it's always terrific when people think creatively about the origins of human bipedalism. But it's not going to be the last word."

Related Topic:
Upright Walking "Began In Trees"

TRAVELOG: Great Hawaiian Vacation Hideaway

If you're contemplating on having that special holiday where you can get away from it all and still enjoy the luxury of a well-deserved vacation, think of "paradise on earth" - Condo Maui Wailea in Hawaii. In that sense, you'll be thinking of a nice, peaceful condo or villa looking out at the ocean.

In fact, the vacation trend today for most savvy travellers is to rent a condo or villa where you and your family or companion can enjoy togetherness in an environment reminiscent of home. Of course, with the added attraction of a beautiful scenery and a relaxing, natural ambience that comes with the holiday spot that you have chosen.

A friend who once had his Hawaiian holiday in Maui was singing lyrical of the place. He had planned out his vacation trip through Hawaiianbeachrentals.com, a website that specializes in Hawaiian vacations. For him, a traditional hotel was out of the question, so he opted for a condo rental for a week.

If a "perfect holiday" is on your mind, the cluster of beautiful islands in Hawaii could well be the right vacation destination. Maui is one of the favorite places, the other location is Wailea overlooking the Pacific. Astute holidaymakers looking for a special holiday hideaway can do so by checking out this vacation website.

This Spider Venom Could Lift Your Sex Life

Forget viagra or cialis. If Brazilian and American scientists have their way with this spider venom, your sex life will be rejuvenated to new heights.

These researchers, according to a BBC report, have investigated reports that men bitten by the Phoneutria nigriventer - or the Brazilian wandering spider in simple language - experienced priapism.

And what's does that mean? Well, to cut a long story short, it's simply a long and painful erection.

But don't get sex-cited too soon because, apart from giving a man a new lease of sex life, the venom can be deadly, too, in some cases.

As they say, in this world nothing comes free. But there's no harm in finding out more about this new revelation.

Money Blogging...In A Bathtub!

Here's a WebProNews exclusive video footage of Jeremy Shoemoney...blogging in a bathtub!

Whether it's a good surprise or a bad one, just enjoy this footage as WebProNews correspondent Allan Dick talks to the bathtub blogger about the ethics of...well, blogging.

Oh Dear, This Is A Dog's Life!

Oh well, this is not news.

Just some inconsequential ramblings about life writing an eclectic news blog as an unpaid newshound. Not to mention, there are two other personal blogs to take care of while I go about my business.

I've got a funny feeling that watching the World Wide Web spinning around might be like spinning a yarn that has no end to it.

In other words, I'm a little short of breath doing this darn thing. It's a dog's life, if you asked me.

Maybe chasing rabbits might be easier and more fun.

Has this bloghound been barking up the wrong tree? Taking on more than he could chew? With this blog?

Oh yeah, some bloggers like to rave about their faves. Others prefer to apply different laws of attraction to their blogs. Like they say, it's different folks, different strokes.

But I must say I have encountered a lot of bloggers who are nice and charming folks, dishing out good advice and other tid-bits. Some are awesome in their blogging and some are inspiring.

And some don't seem to get much sleep at all!

Like they say, it's the Freedom of the Blogosphere. You put in what you have to put in. And it goes out into Blogosphere for all to see.

Well, I could keep going...doggedly if I have to...

Doggone It! Here Come Snoopy Dogs Lucky And Flo

Watch out when you see two black Labrador Retrievers poking their noses here and there in your shop.



The real crunch comes when these two dogs sit down and wag their tails.

It may not turn out to be a friendly canine gesture. More likely they are pointing their paws at you - that they have found something suspicious.



True enough, Lucky and Flo had sniffed out 10 million Malaysian ringgit in fake optical discs at a shopping complex in the southern Malaysian city of Johor Baru on Tuesday, according to a report by the English-language newspaper New Straits Times (NST). Johor Baru is just north of the island state of Singapore.



The two sniffer dogs from Northern Ireland are presently on a month-long working trip to Malaysia.



They became an instant hit when they made the biggest pirated optical discs bust of the year on their very first official assignment in the country.



The fake discs were meant to be exported to Singapore, Britain, Hong Kong and Japan.The NST, quoting enforcement officers, reported that the syndicate "is probably one of the biggest in the country." It had been very active shipping out discs worldwide.



(Although proud of their achievement, this WiredHound feels it's being outdone by Lucky and Flo when it comes down to the real nose job)



Lucky and Flo are trained to be the first canines in the world to sniff out discs. They can detect polycarbonate and other chemicals used in the production of optical discs.



Read more...



Latest - Just got wind of the news from another newshound today: Just like a Mafia movie, it's believed that a contract is out on sniffers Lucky and Flo. Now, several guards have been assigned to protect our two canine heroes who have got the pirates all worked up.

For the record: Lucky and Flo are not the first dogs to have attracted a bounty on them. A Colombian drug cartel placed a $10,000 USD bounty on a golden Labrador Retriever named Agata in 2004. Agata was one of Colombia's best drug-sniffing dogs.



Agata had tracked down 300kg of cocaine and 20kg of heroin since she began her sniffing career in 2003.

Photo credit: NST

Google, YouTube: The Ghost Of Copyright Returns

It's all coming back to haunt Google and YouTube.

When the Mountain View search engine kingpin gobbled up YouTube, Inc. for $1.65 billion in October last year, the acquisition shook up the dotcom landscape.

It was the most expensive takeover in Google's eight-year history.

At that time, industry pundits were wondering how Google would deal with copyright issues in view of the "freeloading" of videos on YouTube.

Now, entertainment giant Viacom Media is suing both Google and YouTube for $1 billion for illegally using its TV programs.

The BBC News website reported that the lawsuit seeks more than $1 billion in damages and an injunction to prevent copyright infringement.

Last month, Viacom, which owns cable networks MTV and Nickelodeon, told YouTube to remove 100,000 "unauthorised" clips.

Read more...

Related topics:
Google's copyright nightmare
Viacom Sues Google, YouTube
YouTube removing Viacom TV shows

USA Today - Expanding A Journalistic Mission

September 15, 1982 - that was a momentous day for Allen H. Neubarth.

His Gannett Company had just launched USA Today, America's first national daily newspaper and also the first satellite-delivered full-color American daily.

It was a high-stake venture for founder Neubarth, a man who is well-known for his never-say-die competitive spirit. It was his dream come true.

March 2, 2007 - USA Today launched a new-look website that's hyped as an expansion of the newpaper's journalistic mission that "we set for ourselves nearly 25 years ago when the newspaper first launched."

In a note to the readers, Editor Ken Paulson wrote on the new website:


In many ways, it's an extension of the mission we set for ourselves nearly 25 years ago, but it is a mission recast for an era in which readers increasingly have the power to monitor many different sources of information at once; to more quickly assess the credibility of those sources; and to share their reactions with a wide audience."

One of the main aspects coming out of this launch is the new Community Center blog that's slated to become "a hub for network journalism activity on the site."

How are reactions to the new site? As with most new things, there are always the pros and cons. Initial previews from Web media analysts were generally positive but since its launch early comments coming to the USA Today.com site were mostly negative.

Related topic:

Can newspapers do blogs right?

GMail In The US Faces Petition

If you are having a GMail address, who knows, you may have to change it if Google lose the rights to the GMail trademark. They lost it in the UK and now...

Here's the latest tip-off from Jason L. Miller of WebProNews:

The company that recently won the rights to the GMail trademark in the UK has taken its case Stateside. And if Independent International Investment Research (IIIR) is successful claiming its stake to GMail in the US as well, your @gmail.com address could change to @googlemail.com instead.

Late last month, IIIR filed a petition with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to cancel Google's ownership of the GMail trademark, alleging the company had improperly acquired their application for it in 2004. "

Read on...

Face-Off Between Google And Microsoft?

Google have launched their Apps Premier Edition and it's going to be a face-off with Microsoft's well-known Office software and their Office Live services.

Google Apps combines a number of applications like Gmail and Docs & Spreadsheets into one place that anyone with a web browser can reach.

It looks like at last consumers may choose an alternative to Microsoft's long stranglehold on online applications.

For more takes on Google Apps debut...

Meanwhile...

If you have been seeing some funky behaviour in the Google search results...like keyword positioning fluctuation that's sudden and brief, should you panic or not?

Was Google carrying out an algorithm update or was it just a "data refresh"? Strange, isn't it to see so-called authority sites slip from top positions for a short spell and then bounced back to normal.

Read more...

How Vista Could Trip Google And Yahoo

And here's the news...

(via WebProNews Video)

Microsoft Vista could pose a serious problem for Google and Yahoo. The recent global launch of Vista could also pose a new challenge for advertisers.

These are revelations that emerged from the recent ad:tech conference in Sydney. Rick Bruner, who heads internet search advertising specialist DoubleClick, warns that Vista has an inbuilt search facility that enables users to bypass popular search engines. Advertisers could find themselves being bypassed, too.

The other prediction was that amateur video and blogs would become long-term investment channels for advertisers. There is a future for the New Media despite being dubbed as "fundamentally disruptive" by some quarters.

Pottermania Returns: A "Deathly" Tale

J. K. Rowling's highly anticipated seventh title "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" has started another round of Pottermania. The release announcement came from the official Harry Porter website.

Amazon.com has registered record advance sales of the heavily discounted book expected to be released on July 21. First day sales have shot "Deathly Hallows" past book six's record of being the fastest selling book of all time.

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," the sixth book in the boy wizard series, was released in July 2005 and sold 6.9 million copies in its first day on sale at U.S. retailers.

According to Amazon.com, hundreds of thousands of customers had signed up for e-mail notices announcing pre-order availability. Retail sales for the seventh edition are set to hit a magical figure when the book is released.

Probably, this would be Rowling's last book of the series.

This time it is believed that two of the major characters in the series would be killed off. Speculations are rife that Harry Potter could be one of them.

How would the huge audience of Potter fans all over the world feel? That would be very, very depressing for a lot of young fans who have come to adore their fantasy hero. However, according to some reports, savvy book retailers are arranging for "counselling" to young fans who might experience "Potter depression."



Harry Potter Gift Card

China's Netizens May Overtake US

China's internet users are increasing by leaps and bounds. According to its state-controlled think-tank, China "could soon overtake the US to have the world's largest number of internet users."

China had 137m internet users by the end of 2006, an increase of 23% from the year before, the China Internet Network Information Center told state media.

This figure means that more than 10% of the population is now online. China will only surpass this number if it keeps up a 24% annual growth rate in the next two years.

The Chinese government encourages people to go online for education or business purposes. The rapid rise in internet use has boosted the country's online commerce, advertising and games industries.

About 210 million of America's 300 million people now use the internet, according to US government figures.

Continue reading...

Do's And Don'ts of Digg

Neil Patel and Todd Malicoat know a thing or two about Digg. As active members of the Digg community (in addition to their roles as leading SEO consultants) they’re afforded a unique perspective on the market. Having recently met with Neil and Todd at Search Engine Strategies, WebProNews had the chance to sling some burning questions from these two guys:

Becks In The USA!

The Beckham circus is coming to town! Los Angeles' gossip rags have gone abuzz at the prospect of former England captain and Manchester United star David and his celebrity wife Victoria 'Posh Spice' Beckham hitting town with a bang!

Beckham is on his way to join the Los Angeles Galaxy in a reported USD250 million deal.

With Beckham's glory days as a football "galactico" fading like fashionable denim jeans and the familiar sight of him warming the bench at Spanish giants Real Madrid, now under Italian coach Fabio Capello, it's obvious his reign in Spain has come to an end.

No, it's not back to England for him, or to any other top European clubs. There have been not much interest for one of football's top earners in the world on the Euro front. But now he's gonna earn his quarter of a billion in yankee dollars in the Golden State. Beckham had opened a soccer academy in LA in 2005.

One British newspaper wag believes Beckham would be having the last laugh by going Hollywood. He's 32 and still have a few more years to show Major League Soccer that he can still cut it there.

Beckham could become possibly one of the highest paid sportsmen in the US of A. Jolly good move, Becks.

And don't forget, there's Posh beside him. Posh and Becks, or "Posh and Bucks!" are one of the world's most photographed couples. The papparazzi just love them.

It's well-known that the Beckhams have struck up a friendship with Hollywood star Tom Cruise and wife Katie Holmes. So getting into the super-lifestyle there would be a piece of cake for them.

Hollywood

And Now Yahoo Buy MyBlogLog

Social networking was the main talking point last year with the acquisitions of MySpace by Rupert Murdoch and YouTube by Google. It looks like it's not going to end there.

Yahoo continues the acquisition story with the announcement on Jan 8 that it has bought the popular community site MyBlogLog. Yahoo's latest purchase followed a strings of acquisitions of other social networking sites that includes Del.icio.us, Flickr and Upcoming.

MyBlogLog, founded in 2005, enables registered users to form communities and provide them with online tools to create a profile and associate it with their blogs.

"If blogging was originally about building a community and having a conversation with people in that community, then MyBlogLog provides the missing link that makes those connections more real," Chad Dickerson, senior director of Yahoo Developer Network, said in a company blog announcing the deal.

> The jig is up - MyBlogLog joins Yahoo!

Going GaGa Over Apple's iPhone

Rampant speculation and expectation were put to rest Tuesday as Apple boss Steve Jobs unveiled the long-awaited iPhone that will use a patented technology called "multi-touch."

The buzz was so huge it almost choked the Internet bandwidth. By unveiling this "super-smart" iPhone, Apple confirmed it's elbowing its way into the telecoms industry.

"It works like magic... It's far more accurate than any touch display ever shipped. It ignores unintended touches. It's super-smart," said Jobs at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco.

Jobs said the "magical device" would "revolutionalize the industry."

The iPhone comes in 4GB and 8GB models and has a 2 megapixel camera. It works with new touch-screen technology.

Wanna buy one? The iPhone will set you back from USD499 to USD599. It will be launched sometime in June in the US. Europe will get it later this year. Now we drool over it!

Read more....

> Read...iPhone a smash - because everyone else is stupid