The Justice Department contacted the companies and told them that they were consulting with Litvack — who was the department’s antitrust chief under US President Jimmy Carter — but had made no decision on whether to challenge the partnership, according to the source.

Yahoo said it was confident that in the end the Justice Department would decide that its deal with Google was legal. “We have been informed that the Justice Department, as they sometimes do, is seeking advice from an outside consultant, but that we should read nothing into that fact,” the search firm said in a statement.

Litvack could not immediately be reached for comment. Dow Jones Newswires reported that Litvack had been asked to examine the evidence gathered so far in the federal review of the deal. According to the Dow Jones story, which cited lawyers close to the review, attorneys have been meeting with witnesses and requesting documents to use in potential litigation to challenge the deal.

“There’s no decision,” the source close to the investigation said, referring to a possible challenge of the Google-Yahoo deal. Yahoo struck the agreement in June with Google, the world’s dominant supplier of Web search services, as it sought to shore up its advertising business and ward off pressure to accept a buyout offer by Microsoft Corp.

Google spokesperson Adam Kovacevich declined to comment on the details of the Justice Department process except to say that the company was cooperating with it. “While there has been a lot of speculation about this agreement’s potential impact on advertisers or ad prices, we think it would be premature for regulators to halt the agreement before we implement it and everyone can judge the actual impact,” he said in an email.

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Microsoft’s latest Internet browser includes a piece of software that allows Internet users to hide the audit trail of websites they have visited.

The InPrivate feature on Internet Explorer 8, nicknamed “porn mode”, allows users to conceal the sites they have viewed at the click of a button.

Once the setting is chosen, others using the same computer will not be able to see which sites have been accessed. Other browsers have similar functions, but this one is far more prominent. Although casual users cannot see the previous user’s search history, authorities such as the police will be able to access it if necessary.

The software may be hailed as a victory for privacy campaigners, but it represents a serious threat to Microsoft’s bigger rival, Google. In allowing surfers to access websites but conceal their browsing behaviour, Microsoft prevents Internet sites from collecting information about their users — data that is then used to sell targeted advertising.

Marketing companies try to target adverts at Internet users whom they believe may be interested in certain goods or services.
Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft are fighting for bigger shares of the world’s Internet advertising market, which is estimated to be worth $40 billion a year and is expected to double in value by 2010.

Google, which is the world’s biggest Internet company, holds the lion’s share of the online advertising market, leaving Yahoo! and Microsoft to hold the second and third slots.

So lucrative is the Internet advertising market that Microsoft tried to buy Yahoo! for $47.5 billion this year solely to compete with Google. Yahoo! rejected Microsoft’s approaches, even though the software company had been willing to pay 72 per cent more than its share price.

Google tried to expand its targeted advertising business when it bought DoubleClick for $3.1 billion this year. The Internet company is attempting to increase the proportion of its revenue that is derived from display advertising.

The company has been criticised for the quantity of data it gathers about people who use its services.

David Mitchell, of the information technology agency Ovum, said: “If the hype around privacy gains more credibility, more people will hit the private button. There is a potential threat here to click-through advertising.”

Microsoft’s so-called porn-mode button strikes at the heart of an ongoing row about Internet privacy and how much online companies and advertisers know about our behaviour and interests.

At the extreme end of the debate, the online search engine Yahoo! was vilified by human rights campaigners after it disclosed details of its users to the Chinese government. The information led to the arrests of writers and dissidents. One journalist cited in the case was tracked down and jailed for ten years for subversion after Yahoo passed on his e-mail and IP address to officials. Yahoo! had argued that it had no option but to comply with local laws.

The browser became available as a “beta” version last night but will eventually be included with Microsoft’s Windows operating system.

Microsoft and Google failed to return calls last night. Subscribe=>

Source: Fox News More Top News

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Tax rebates have encouraged consumers to spend more

The US economy grew at a revised 3.3% annually in the second quarter of 2008, the Commerce Department said, much higher than its first estimate of 1.9%.

The rebound was linked to strong US exports, helped by the weak dollar, while government tax rebates also boosted consumer spending.

GDP grew at a rate of 0.9% in the first quarter, after a 0.2% contraction in the last three months of 2007.

The Federal Reserve has warned the economy will remain weak this year.

Exports grew at an annualised rate of 13.2%, higher than the government’s initial estimate of 9.2%.

Imports fell at a rate of 7.6% as the US economic slowdown reduced demands for goods made overseas.

The improved trade balance added 3.1 percentage points to second-quarter GDP, the biggest since 1980.

The slowdown in the housing market was evident, as builders cut back and businesses reduced their spending.

Consumer spending, boosted by the government’s $600 tax rebate payments, rose by 1.7%, slightly higher than the previous quarter’s 1.5%.

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Source: BBC More Top News

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To the deafening roar of fireworks, Beijing marked the end of Summer Games that brought it a record bounty of 51 gold medals and seized global sports supremacy from the United States.

The two-hour closing ceremony held a dash of whimsy - including scores of performers on pogo stilts - and more technical wizardry than the precision mass movements of singers and dancers of the Aug. 8 opening of the Games, designed to project China’s strength.

Some 7,000 performers took part in the closing ceremony, including Spanish tenor Placido Domingo, Chinese chanteuse Song Zuying and British singer Leona Lewis.

Liu Qi, head of the organizing committee of the Beijing Games, extolled the athletes who broke numerous records during the 16-day games.

“They have given their very best in a fair play environment and achieved amazing results by breaking 38 world records and 85 Olympic records,” Liu said.

A little more than an hour into the ceremony, Beijing Mayor Guo Jinlong handed the Olympic flag to International Olympic Committee chief Jacques Rogge, who passed it on to Boris Johnson, London’s beaming mop-haired mayor.

Then it was London’s turn.

As British Prime Minister Gordon Brown watched from the stadium gallery, British designers took over a portion of the evening ceremony, and brought with them a legendary figure in rock-music history, a sporting icon and some wry British humor.

A red double-decker London bus drove into the Bird’s Nest Stadium, peeling open like a blossoming flower to reveal a stage. On it was Jimmy Page, the Led Zeppelin guitarist, playing the classic “Whole Lotta Love.” Moments later, David Beckham, the soccer icon, arrived to kick a soccer ball into a crowd of athletes. Beckham scored a huge ovation.

Tens of thousands of Britons watched the ceremony in live broadcasts on 30 giant screens around the British Isles, including in London’s Trafalgar Square.

While Beijing spent more than $40 billion to build knock-’em-dead arenas, new subway lines and environmental programs to clear smog, London has budgeted a more modest $19 billion. The British capital, Europe’s largest city with 8.5 million residents, has cast the 2012 Games as a way to revive poor parts of east London, leaving a long-term legacy to the city.

London officials have also suggested they can teach Beijing how to hold a party. Security measures left Beijing bereft of common areas for people to gather and celebrate, and few people were allowed onto the massive Olympic Green for the first week.

The Beijing games brought hundreds of thousands of volunteers into the streets to assist tourists but were characterized by extraordinary levels of police control and marred by scattered acts of repression, including more than a dozen arrests, among them two elderly Chinese women who sought permits to hold a legal protest.

Beijing denied permits to all disgruntled citizens who wanted to protest in three designated parks it set up in a sop to global criticism of its policies on human rights. Liu, refuting foreign criticism that Beijing lied to win the games, claimed in his short speech that “the Chinese people … have honored their commitments they solemnly made” in obtaining the Olympics.

Rogge, the IOC chief, acknowledged earlier Sunday at a news conference that London games will have a different flavor than the precise, clockwork Beijing games.

Rogge lauded London as “a very cosmopolitan city” in a nation that invented modern sport and ushered in values of fair play. He also noted that Britain reaped a record medal haul (19 gold medals, No. 4 in the table), giving it momentum.

“We always want a very powerful and successful host team to foster the enthusiasm in the entire population, and you have achieved that four years beforehand,” Rogge said.

While London was the evening’s debutante, of sorts, a fast-and-furious race still unfolded behind the scenes in Beijing hotel corridors and restaurants as delegates from Chicago and three other cities lobbied 115 IOC members for the right to host the 2016 Summer Games.

Madrid, with its European panache, is seen as a frontrunner, along with gritty Chicago, a diehard sports city with a remarkable lakefront. Sassy Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and sophisticated Tokyo are also competing for the rights as host.

“The city of Chicago is wildly passionate about hosting the Games. The people are very much into it,” said Patrick G. Ryan, the insurance tycoon who Mayor Richard Daley tapped as his city’s bid chief. “Our Olympic heart will be right in center city in the parkland.”

Rio’s chances to host the 2016 Games seemed to rise during the Beijing Games, with soccer legend Pele arguing that Rio’s bid is on behalf of all South America, which has never been awarded the Olympics.

“We’ve proved that we have the merit,” said Carlos Arthur Nuzman, Rio’s bid chief.

The decision on the 2016 Games will be made in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Oct. 2, 2009. Some leaders of state representing the competing cities have already said they will travel to Copenhagen.

Ryan, the Chicago bid chief, said he expected that whoever wins the U.S. presidency in November, Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain, barring any scheduling conflicts, would travel to Denmark to back Chicago’s bid. Subscribe=>

Source: The State More Top News

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