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Google Books It to the Finish Line
Even Evan Needs to Spend Some Time Alone
Evan Williams, the co-founder of Blogger -- the blog software company scooped up by Google -- is leaving the search engine giant. The news was announced (where else) in his blog. "A few months ago, I started getting the itch to start another company," Williams wrote. "I might pay attention to other parts of life for a while first."
But what about the options? "Industry watchers expect that scores of Google employees, soon to be enriched by the company's recent $1.67 billion initial public offering, would contemplate other options, following the lead of workers at other Silicon Valley companies that had successful IPOs," Reuters said.
• Reuters: Co-founder of Google's Blogger leaving company
• eWeek: Blogger Boss To Leave Google
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Yahoo to Google: Enjoy the Ride
Google was among the companies discussed at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco this week. Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, speaking at the conference, gave Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page some advice from one search-engine posse to another, CNET's News.com reported. "While his company and Google are in an escalating war to control the commercial search business, Yang still gave them kudos for making an impact on the Internet. 'I said to them, "I hope they enjoy it," because starting a company to this stage is a tribute to their vision and their leadership,' Yang said. 'To see what they've done is truly amazing.'" Is Google printing up its new promo material yet?
• CNET's News.com: Yang Tells Google Founders To Enjoy It
The San Jose Mercury News has a good round up of developments at the Web 2.0 conference, including another tidbit on Google that should make Microsoft's Bill Gates breathe easy for now. "Google board member and venture capitalist John Doerr dismissed speculation that the Mountain View search company was developing a Web browser to compete with Microsoft's Internet Explorer. He did offer a caveat, though, noting that as a board member, he doesn't see everything going on inside the company," the paper said. Among the tech stars at the conference? "Yang of Yahoo, Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos, Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen and Mark Cuban of HDNet," the paper said.
• San Jose Mercury News: Bigwigs Discuss Web's Next Incarnation (Registration required)
So what's next for the Web? Digital information gathering and storage is huge. BBC News Online wrote this dispatch from the event: "Universal access to all human knowledge could be had for around $260m, a conference about the web's future has been told. The idea of access for all was put forward by visionary Brewster Kahle, who suggested starting by digitally scanning all 26 million books in the US Library of Congress. His idea was just one of many presented at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco that aims to give a glimpse of what the net will become. Experts at the event said the next generation of the web will come out of the creative and programming communities starting to tinker with the vast pool of data the net has become."
• BBC News Online: Visionaries Outline Web's Future
The San Francisco Chronicle reminded readers that it's not 1999, even though some major tech players are giddy these days. "It was as if the Internet implosion never happened. Some of the high-technology industry's biggest executives, pontificators and bloggers assembled over three days this week in San Francisco, ending Thursday, to opine about the Web's future. It turns out, the future looks bright, judging from comments by the participants. The Web 2.0 conference was an online lovefest, where an array of speakers repeated that the Internet is still in its infancy. A panel of financial analysts and venture capitalists questioned whether the industry is going through another bubble and then quickly dismissed the notion," the paper said.
• San Francisco Chronicle: Internet Bigwigs Upbeat
Spy Wars
Congress ratcheted up its fight against spyware with a series of new laws against software that secretly attaches itself to a PC's operating system and tracks keystrokes and Web searches. The House of Representatives yesterday passed a second anti-spyware bill that would tag convicted purveyors of spyware with up to 5 years in the slammer. The bill, known as the "Internet Spyware Prevention Act," passed 415-0. "It would give the Justice Department $10 million to crack down on companies and others that secretly install spyware and those who attempt to trick victims into disclosing personal details and financial information in e-mail scams popularly known as 'phishing,'" the Associated Press reported.
In its coverage of the bills, washingtonpost.com reported that the "Business Software Alliance, which represents Microsoft and many other large software makers, had raised similar concerns about the legislation, but dropped its opposition after House supporters added language designed to protect legitimate software makers."
• The Associated Press via washingtonpost.com: Bill Imposes Prison Time Over 'Spyware' (Registration required)
• washingtonpost.com:: Spyware Bills Win House Approval (Registration required)
Joining the spyware hunt, the Federal Trade Commission yesterday "filed the first case in the country against software companies accused of infecting computers with intrusive 'spyware' and then trying to sell people the solution," the AP also reported.
• The Associated Press via washingtonpost.com: FTC Files Case Against Spyware Suspects (Registration required)
AT&T Sheds Thousands of Jobs
New Jersey-based AT&T Corp. is cutting 12,300 jobs, or 20 percent of its payroll, and taking an asset write-down of $11.4 billion. "For a century, AT&T was a monopoly that controlled all telephone lines into U.S. residential homes. In 1984 it was split from the regional Bell companies and became a long-distance company, and it has remained the largest provider of residential long-distance service, with 25 million subscribers. But earlier this year, AT&T said it would stop marketing to consumers," The Washington Post said. The New York Post explained more on AT&T's exit from consumer phone service. "After a century of being thought of as the nation's phone provider, AT&T lost many customers to Verizon and other Baby Bells after the 1984 court-ordered breakup. Then, what profitability was left in residential phone service was siphoned off by customer migration to cellphones. As a result, this summer, AT&T, still the No. 1 provider of long-distance service, announced that it would no longer try to add residential customers."
USA Today reported that some "9,000 of the positions have already been eliminated, according to a source familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity. Severance costs and other expenses related to the job cuts will reduce third-quarter earnings by $1.1 billion, the company said. The asset writedown of $11.4 billion, reflecting the reduced value of AT&T's network now that it will be carrying less consumer voice traffic, will be charged against earnings in the third and fourth quarter."
• The Washington Post: AT&T Plans More Cuts In Workforce (Registration required)
• New York Post: AT&T Cuts Staff 20% As Losses Grow
• The Associated Press via USA Today: AT&T Plans More Job Cuts
Unisys is also handing out pink slips, Dow Jones Newswires reported yesterday. The computer services firm "plans to cut 1,400 jobs, or nearly 4% of its work force, and consolidate some facility space, moves that will help yield savings of about $70 million a year by 2005."
• Dow Jones Newswire via The Wall Street Journal: Unisys To Cut 1,400 Jobs In Effort To Trim Costs (Subscription required)