Net's Most Popular Search Engine Seeks to Replace Daily Newspapers Worldwide

Google Inc. unintentionally provided a sneak peek at what appears to be a looming expansion into classified advertising -- a free service that might antagonize some of the Internet search engine's biggest customers, including online auctioneer eBay Inc.


Screen shots of the experimental service, dubbed Google Base, appeared on several Web sites Tuesday shortly after the legions of people who dissect the online search engine leader's every move discovered a link to a page inviting people to list things like a used car for sale, a party planning service and current events.

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Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer vowed to "kill" Internet search leader Google Inc. in an obscenity-laced tirade, and Google chased a prized Microsoft executive "like wolves," according to documents filed Friday in an increasingly bitter legal battle between the rivals.

The allegations, filed in a Washington state court, represent the latest salvos in a showdown triggered by Google's July hiring of former Microsoft executive Kai Fu-Lee to oversee a research and development center that Google plans to open in China. Lee started at Google the day after he resigned from Microsoft.

The tug-of-war over Lee - known for his work on computer recognition of language - has exposed the behind-the-scenes animosity that has been brewing between two of high-tech's best-known companies.

Ballmer's threat last November was recounted in a sworn declaration by a former Microsoft engineer, Mark Lucovsky, who said he met with Microsoft's chief executive 10 months ago to discuss his decision to leave the company after six years.

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"I'm going to f------ kill Google."
declares Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer
 

CARLSBAD, Calif. - Don’t be fooled by all the speeches about global health and high school education. Bill Gates is still, first and foremost, about clobbering Microsoft Corp.’s competition. And his current obsession is Google Inc.

"Google is still, you know, perfect," he told the crowd of technology executives attending The Wall Street Journal’s third annual* D" conference on "All Things Digital." "The bubble is still floating. They can do everything. You should buy their stock at any price."

The world’s richest man said those words with a wry irony that suggested ridicule of the Google craze, but also resentment. There may be hot air in Google’s highflying stock price ($260 Wednesday on the Nasdaq Stock Market), but Gates clearly takes the company seriously. "We had a 10-year period like that," he said, equating Google’s current standing in the computer world to that of Microsoft from 1986 to 1996.  

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Bill Gates and Steve Balmer
Chairman/CEO - President Microsoft

Larry Page and Sergey Brin
Google Founders

A consumer searching online for information about an insurance company should not be barred from seeing ads from that company's competitors, Public Citizen said today in a "friend of the court" brief involving a lawsuit filed by Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO).

GEICO has filed suit against two major Internet search engine operators, Google Inc. and Overture Services Inc., in an effort to suppress advertising by competing insurance companies and online insurance brokers.

GEICO is claiming trademark infringement, alleging that the search engine operators violate trademark rights by allowing other insurance companies to advertise to consumers who display an interest in obtaining information relating in some way to GEICO by using the registered trademark "GEICO" as a search term.

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According to the LA Times, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp is in negotiations to buy the Blinkx search engine. LA Times reports “News Corp. is in negotiations to buy Blinkx, a privately held Internet search company based in San Francisco, according to people close to the world’s fourth-largest media giant.

The prospective acquisition of Blinkx is part of an aggressive bid by News Corp. to take on such Internet powerhouses as Yahoo Inc. News Corp. is trying to build a rival portal by acquiring fast-growing Web businesses and by leveraging the sites of its in-house brands, including those of local Fox TV stations, the Fox TV network and cable channels such as Fox Sports and Fox News.”

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Google Inc. is being sued over accusations that it overcharged advertisers who use the Web search giant's paid search advertising program, which accounts for the vast majority of Google's revenue.

The proposed class-action suit, filed on August 3 in State Superior Court in Santa Clara, California, accuses Google of charging in excess of advertisers' "daily budgets," under which Google allows an advertiser to limit how much it spends each day.

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Online search-engine leader Google Inc. is preparing to introduce an electronic payment system later this year in a move that would pose a financial threat to one of its biggest advertisers, Internet auctioneer eBay Inc.

The Wall Street Journal reported Google's plans on its Web site late Friday, citing sources familiar with the Mountain View-based company's plans. The Journal did not provide any details about Google's strategy.

A Google spokesman declined to comment on the report.

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