California us

Yahoo sues Facebook – Yahoo company is accusing Facebook of copying a range of technologies that the flagging search company invented, in a lawsuit that alleges the social media giant infringes 10 patents. "Facebook's entire social network model, which allows users to create profiles for and connect with, among other things, persons and businesses, is based on Yahoo's patented social networking technology," Yahoo wrote in the lawsuit filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Yahoo accuses Facebook of infringing patents covering technologies related to advertising, privacy, site customization, social networking and integrated communications in social networking. The suit describes several Facebook features that Yahoo alleges use its technology. Facebook's News Feed, the primary way of viewing friends' activity, infringes Yahoo's customization patents, according to Yahoo. The way Facebook handles privacy infringes Yahoo patents related to privacy, it said. The format of many ads, such as Facebook's Premium Video Comment Ads, are based on Yahoo inventions, according to Yahoo. And the way Facebook displays and arranges ads and combats click fraud using the pay-per-click model infringe Yahoo patents, it said. Yahoo didn't say if it had offered to license the technologies to Facebook, though reports last month suggested that Yahoo threatened the social networking site with legal action if it didn't make a deal.

In a statement Monday, Facebook said it was surprised by the move. "We're disappointed that Yahoo, a longtime business partner of Facebook and a company that has substantially benefited from its association with Facebook, has decided to resort to litigation. Once again, we learned of Yahoo's decision simultaneously with the media. We will defend ourselves vigorously against these puzzling actions," it said. It's likely no coincidence that Yahoo filed the suit now, just before Facebook is set to go public. "I think the timing coincides with the IPO and they're going to try to use the IPO as a source of pressure to get them to settle rather than litigate," said Greg Sterling, an analyst with Sterling Market Intelligence. The strategy echoes Yahoo's decision to sue Google just before that company filed for its IPO. Yahoo sued Google for allegedly infringing patents controlled by Yahoo subsidiary Overture. Onlookers thought Google settled that dispute so that it wasn't involved in any potentially costly legal action when it went public. In the suit against Facebook, Yahoo argues that simple back payment of royalties won't suffice.

"Yahoo is harmed by Facebook's use of Yahoo's patented technologies in a way that cannot be compensated for by payment of royalty alone," Yahoo's lawyers wrote. "Facebook's use of Yahoo's patented technologies has increased Facebook's revenue and market share because it does not have to recover the cost or time involved in the development of the technology." While the suit may look like a change in strategy for Yahoo, that's likely not the case, Sterling said. "The tendency is to see this as a sign of resignation by Yahoo, that they can no longer compete and they're going to get money now through patent litigation because they can't generate revenue through advertising," he said. However, he thinks Yahoo is just taking an opportunity presented by Facebook's public offering to secure a potential cash infusion. Yahoo did not reply to a request for additional comment on its lawsuit.

France - Austra

Internet freedom : Reporters Without Borders says the Arab Spring is changing the face of Internet freedom. The media watchdog published its annual "Enemies of the Internet" report Monday Jan 2012, listing countries that curtail freedom of expression on and access to the Website. The group has put Bahrain on its enemies list, citing a news blackout and harassment of bloggers in its attempts to quell a yearlong rebellion against the country's monarchy. Meanwhile, it has dropped Libya from its second-tier list of countries under surveillance after a revolt there that toppled Mr.MoammarGadhafi. The enemies list contains countries that are well known for blocking Internet content, like Myanmar, China and NorthKorea countries. But the list of those under surveillance contains some surprises like France and Australia countries.

European universities - research institutes

New technology Lightning-quick net speeds, more robust connections and a big increase in network capacity at little extra cost may now be possible, thanks to the ground-breaking fibre-optic technology, under a new project. The project, known as Sardana project, involving a consortium of European universities and research institutes, has demonstrated speeds of up to 10 Gigabits per second (Gbps), around 2,000 times quicker than the fastest Internet speed today. European universities and Researchers also showed that such speeds can be achieved at relatively little extra cost using existing fibre technology infrastructure. Though still in the experimental stages, the fully optical technology would mark a giant leap forward in fibre network performance. "We are proposing a new access network architecture using fibre technology to the home that provides new functionalities and extended performance," said Mr.JosepPrat, researcher in optical communications, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC) Spain and scientific coordinator of the Sardana project. According to some estimates, yearly global Internet traffic will need to be measured in Zettabytes (one trillion Gigabytes) within the next three years, a four-fold increase from today and the data equivalent of all the movies ever made passing through operators' networks every 5 minutes, according to an university statement. Streaming video from websites such as YouTube and Netflix will account for most of the traffic, alongside more widespread use of similarly bandwidth-demanding video conferencing and telepresence applications.

online business partners

Find a new friends or online business partners among the hundreds of people you encounter each week. A new Apple Iphone application may help. The apple new iPhone application called Highlight aims to transform how people meet by alerting users when they are physically near people with whom they share a connection such as mutual friends, similar interests or the same hometown. "Nothing affects our happiness or influences our lives more than the people around us. But the way we find or learn about friends and online business partners, is -- and always has been -- completely random and inefficient," said Mr.PaulDavison, the founder of Highlight. "Take San Francisco (usa)as an example. It's a city of 800,000 strangers. We sit on the bus and stand in line next to each other. But you don't know anything about anyone that you pass by. That doesn't seem weird, because it's always been that way. But if you think about it, it's kind of ridiculous," he said. The apple Highlight applications runs in the background on users' devices. When it makes a connection it sends each user the other's profile, including information such as names, images, mutual connections and interests. It can include companies where they work, or neighborhoods where they live, if the information is provided on their Facebook profiles. The app displays each user's current location on a map, within an accuracy of 35 to 50 meters (yards). Davison said the evolution of social technology during the past decade has shown the natural urge to share information about ourselves and our curiosity about the people around us.

People discovery : It is for these reasons that he thinks apple application like Highlight, which have been defined as "people discovery" or "ambient awareness" will be embraced despite security concerns from critics. He cited Facebook, Foursquare and Twitter as examples of how users have embraced technology that had raised privacy concerns, according to Davison. "You see this pattern repeat over and over again. When they first launch, a lot of people look at it and say, 'That's weird, that's creepy, why would I do that?'" "But then a small subset of people give it a shot and find out that it's really fun and rewarding. Over time, more and more people see them having fun, and they hear good things about it, and they decide that the social benefits of being part of this thing and participating in this ecosystem outweigh the cost of the additional privacy they're giving up." Davison added that all participants opt-in to using the app. He said the company will have a heavy focus on security and adding more intelligence. For example, they will increase the ways in which Highlight identifies and makes a connection, depending on circumstances. "If you and I are friends and both live in San Francisco and are three miles apart, that's not that interesting. But if you and I are both in Kansas three miles apart -- and didn't travel there together -- that's really interesting," he said. Similar people discovery apps include Glancee, Sonar and Banjo.