According to Yahoo!Tech, Microsoft is likely to show a new version of its Internet search engine publicly for the first time next week. It remains to be seen, however, whether the new search engine, which has been tested internally under the name Kumo and which is expected to be unveiled at the “D: All Things Digital” conference, will allow Microsoft to make any inroads on search leader Google, which currently holds more than 64% of the online search market in the US.
In more Microsoft news, Yahoo!Tech reveals that Microsoft is adding Netflix to the list of content providers in its Windows Media Center feature for Vista PCs as part of the company's drive to give people more entertainment options on their computers. Microsoft already has a deal to deliver movies from Netflix through its Xbox game console, but people can only play back movies that are available for instant streaming on that platform. The Netflix application in Windows Media Center allows people not only to instantly stream movies that are available that way, but also to manage their own physical disc queue for DVDs they receive from Netflix in the mail, according to Ben Reed, senior product marketing manager at Microsoft. Reed left it unclear, however, whether the Netflix application will be available in Windows 7, Microsoft’s next operating system.
The Seattle Times reports that Amazon is suing Animal Planet TV operator Discovery Channel over four patents related to the way in which consumers conducted searches on online shopping sites. The Seattle-based Internet retailer alleges that Discovery’s online store is infringing Amazon patents which allow customers to refine searches for products or get recommendations based on previous purchases. Amazon is seeking a court order to block use of its inventions plus cash compensation. The two companies are also embroiled in a legal battle over Discovery’s claim that it invented some of the basic technology used in Amazon’s Kindle book reader.
The Register writes that Google’s news aggregation and search site yesterday suffered its second outage in the UK within just one week. The site was already unavailable from the UK for about 15 minutes from on Monday. Last week, Google suffered an even more serious outage resulting in users around the world losing access to most of Google’s applications, including Gmail, Google maps, Google Docs and AdSense. As the Register points out, for companies dependent on Google Apps the outage meant lost productivity and therefore lost income, making the glitch much more than just a minor annoyance.
CNetNews’ The Social author Caroline McCarthy has a good summary of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s (non-)answers to journalists’ questions at the Reuters Global Technology Summit. Apparently the media types wanted to know whether Facebook really turned down a $200 million funding round at an $8 billion valuation, but Zuckerberg would say only that the company doesn’t need more money but that doesn’t mean it won’t raise any fresh capital. Asked by the journalists whether Facebook will launch an ad network for the developers using Facebook Platform and Facebook Connect, the CEO, who recently turned 25, answered without answering by saying that "it could be a pretty natural extension for us to do something with ads or a number of other things that we've considered."