Brad Smith, Microsoft’s senior vice president and general counsel, said of the new partnership, which was announced yesterday: “This agreement is even more anti-competitive than Google’s deal with Yahoo! in the United States and Canada that the Department of Justice found to be illegal. The 2008 deal would have locked up 90 percent of paid search advertising.

“This deal gives Google virtually 100 percent of all searches in Japan, both paid and unpaid. It means there will be no search competition in Japan and that Google will end up controlling all personal search information for all Japanese consumers and businesses.”

Smith was referring to a US advertising agreement Google and Yahoo! were contemplating in 2008, which they then abandoned after the DOJ said it would stop the deal on anti-trust grounds.

Yahoo!’s search deal with Google in Japan, surprised many in the technology world, as Yahoo! had its far-reaching 10 year search partnership deal approved by both the US and European authorities earlier this year.

However, Yahoo! Japan is not controlled by Yahoo! Inc, as it only owns a 35 per cent stake. Softbank Corp, a Japanese mobile phone and internet service provider, owns the majority of Yahoo! Japan, with a 40 per cent stake.

A Yahoo! spokesman said: “Yahoo! Japan announced that it has chosen to implement Google as its backend algorithmic search engine and paid search infrastructure.

“Yahoo! Japan made this decision as an independent and separate publicly traded company, in which Yahoo! holds a 35% equity interest… This decision by Yahoo! Japan does not impact the global rollout and implementation of the Yahoo! search alliance with Microsoft, except in the Japanese market. We remain confident in our transition plans for the search alliance, are driving innovation in the user experience around search on the Yahoo! network, and continue to be committed to our alliance with Microsoft.”

The Initiative for a Competitive Online Marketplace (ICOMP) has also criticised the deal citing a “concern for the healthy development of the Japanese online market”.

The organisation’s statement said: “ICOMP believes that the announcement raises major antitrust issues and that concerted efforts should be made to block its approval…There should be very great concern that Google would achieve a near-monopoly position in Japan, given the many significant antitrust investigations taking place in countries where it has already acquired a near-monopoly position.

“For those reasons, the presumption must be that it should not be allowed to go ahead and that it should be blocked on antitrust grounds.”

A Google spokesman responded: “Yahoo! Japan Corporation will continue to compete as an independent online search and advertising company, and will be able to customize Google’s search service for their users – including how they see and experience search on YJC. Users should continue to expect to have very different experiences on YJC – whose portal approach to search is very popular in Japan – versus when they are on Google.

“This kind of arrangement is commonplace in the business world, and it doesn’t foreclose robust competition. Toyota sells its hybrid technology to Ford, even though they compete against one another in selling cars. Canon provides laser printer engines for HP, despite also competing in the broader laser printer market. And as we said, this is not the first time we’ve licensed our search technology to another portal site.”

According to Google, both companies have consulted with the Japan Fair Trade Commission and have received confirmation from the JFTC that is has no objection to the partnership. Google maintains that the deal differs to the US deal in 2008 as no Google adverts will appear on Yahoo! Japan’s sites, nor will Google gain access to Yahoo! Japan advertising data. Yahoo! will continue to acquire new advertising customers independently of Google.

Yahoo! Japan is the country’s most popular search service and accounts for over 50 per cent of all search activity. Google comes in second with just under 40 per cent and Microsoft’s Bing, third with around a three per cent share, according to Nielsen Online NetView figures from October 2008.

Yahoo!’s websites were also visited by almost nine out of every 10 Japanese internet users during May, according to comScore.

Microsoft and Yahoo!s search deal, will see Bing, power Yahoo!’s search engine. In return Yahoo! will be responsible for selling the advertising around the combined search efforts. Outwardly to a user, there will be no discernable difference, as both search operations will continue have their own presence.

The search-advertising deal was first announced in July 2009 but the companies had to wait until they received clearance from both regulators before making any moves to implement the arrangement.

The European Commission said that because Microsoft and Yahoo! currently account for less than 10 per cent of the search market in Europe, while Google accounts for 90 per cent, the deal was expected to increase competition in search and search advertising by building a stronger force to rival Google’s dominance.

The companies are aiming to fuse their search technologies by the end of 2010 and hope to have reorganised their advertising arrangements accordingly by that time too – although they recognise this may take longer and carry over into 2011.

The deal will see Microsoft will keep 12 per cent of the search engine revenues created by Yahoo!’s website for the first five years and pay the remaining 88 per cent to Yahoo! during this period.
–By Emma Barnett,28 Jul 2010

Five tips that will help you get the most out of your mobile phone camera.

1 Get close

More and more mobile phones have cameras with digital zoom technology but on most phones the results are disappointing. Avoid using the zoom to enlarge your subject or frame your picture and move in as close to the subject as possible instead. This will also help to make sure you think about the shot.

2 Keep still

It is always important to keep any camera really still as you fire the shutter but it is even more important when taking pictures with your phone – these cameras don’t have much of the image stabilising technology found in modern digital cameras. Make sure that you are well balanced with both feet on the ground when you take pictures rather than trying to grab a quick shot on the move.

3 Lots of light

You will always get better pictures if there is plenty of light available. Many mobile phone cameras really struggle without a lot of light resulting in images that are blurred and grainy. Try switching the lights on, even during the day, and, if your phone has a flash, experiment with it even when the light seems reasonable as the camera may not be picking up as much light as you might expect. If a friend is taking pictures using the flash on their digital camera, try to press the shutter as they fire their flash so that you can use the extra light too.

4 Play with apps

There has been an explosion in photography apps for smart phones over the last few years. Many, such as Photoshop mobile (mobile.photoshop.com), will let you make simple adjustments to your pictures that will transform your images. Start by cropping and sharpening images and then try altering the exposure, saturation and contrast. And if you’re a fan of effects, don’t forget that there are apps for all of these styles and more.

5 Try a tripod

The faintest shake can blur a mobile photo. Either rest your phone or use a tripod such as Gorillapod – visit joby.com/gorillapod
-By Kate Day,25 Jul 2010

Cybercriminals are increasingly focussing on money, a new report suggests, and improved organisation means that “toolkits” have been developed to methodically infect PCs so that illegally obtained information can be bought and sold.

In a survey by security firm AVG, 165 internet domains were found to have attacked 12 million visitors over the course of two months. More than 1.2 million computers were subsequently infected.

The research looked at criminals using the so called “Eleonore toolkit”, which aims to use malware contained on specially created websites to steal information such as credit card details, emails and national insurance numbers.

The software targets known vulnerabilites, primarily in older versions of Microsoft’s web browser. Internet Explorer 6 alone accounted for one-third of all infections. Apple Browser Safari proved the most resistant to Eleonore attacks, allowing just 2.78 per cent of machines using it to be infected. Adobe Acrobat and Sun Javascript also accounted for a significant number of infections.

Criminal servers were typically hosted in the Ukraine, where more than a quarter were found, the Russian Federation and Kazakhstan. Hackers appeared to target the Russian Federation, too: 8,906,025 attacks were recorded, and 916,430 (10.3%) were successful. The United States and Britain attracted approximately half a million attacks each, which met with a similar level of success.

AVG encouraged users to ensure they were using security software to protect their computers.
–By Matt Warman, 22 Jul 2010