Ben Charny

Google Tests its Reputed eBay Killer

Search giant Google, Inc. tipped its hand this week to Google Base, its much-rumored auction service that many people believe is meant to compete against auction sites like eBay or CraigsList. Screen shots of “Google Base,” available on several different Web logs, explain that the service-to-be is a database consisting of “your content” thats free […]

ICANN, Verisign Settle Lawsuit

A settlements been reached in a federal lawsuit that VeriSign filed claiming that an Internet oversight agency had overstepped its boundaries. The settlement must be approved by the boards of VeriSign Inc., a company whose operation is fundamental to the Internet, and ICANN (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), which intends to seek […]

Real Estate Ads Finding More Space Online

A company created by mapping and instant message pioneer Perry Evans is set to make a deal that highlights the importance of commercial real estate to the Internet search industry. Evans local search provider, Denver-based Local Matters, Inc. is in the final stages of buying some, or all, of a company with access to extensive […]

Search Finds a Nerve to Rub Raw

Internet search technology may be getting too smart for its own good, says Michelle Weil, co-author of the book “TechnoStress.” Bleeding-edge search products no longer have to be told what to do. Theres a growing number like Watson 2.0, from Chicago, Ill.-based Intellext, which, on their own, selects keywords from a computer file you are […]

Broadband Parasites: Welcome (Kind of)

SANTA CLARA, Calif. —eDonkey, Kazaa and other peer-to-peer software is the 800-pound gorilla here at the ISPCon Fall 2005 conference, a gathering of broadband providers and network operators. The group assembled here realizes it cant stop the results of the freely available software for using the Internet to exchange computer files with anyone else. About […]

Search Engine for Sale on eBay

The search engine Jux2 has put itself up for sale on the auction Web site eBay, a sign of the times for the hyper-competitive search industry. On Wednesday, a week before the auction ends, the highest bid was $26,300. Owning a search engine isnt for the meek. Aside from having to come up with the […]

Publishers Line Up Against Google Print

An association of major American book publishers is suing Google Inc., alleging that the search giants plan to scan books and make them available online violates copyright law. The complaint takes aim at the Google Print Library project, which is in the midst of scanning book collections at several major universities plus the New York […]

Google Print Goes To Europe

Search giant Google Inc. has expanded Google Print, its controversial book-scanning project, into eight European countries. Native language sites have been launched in France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and Spain. At each of the new Google Print locations, users can see snippets of the book where their search term appears. Several European […]

Network Operator Fight Leads to Call to Feds

Some consumers feeling the impact of a spat between two major Internet network operators are asking for government intervention, but, so far, theres no substantive move by lawmakers or utility regulators to step into the fray. As significant numbers of businesses and consumers found out recently, Level 3 Communications, a major Internet network operator, refuses […]

Googles Got GAIM

Sean Egan, Google Inc.s latest high-profile hire, up until a few weeks ago was lead developer of software to simultaneously use multiple IM accounts. But now hes got some much bigger fish to fry, namely helping Google chart the future of Google Talk, the search giants instant messaging feature that for now stands in the […]