Filter looks at the day's top technology news through snapshots and analysis of what the world's media outlets are covering. Washingtonpost.com's new Mon.-Fri. feature is penned by technology reporter Cynthia L. Webb. If a technology story breaks, a company falters or triumphs, or there's a new trend in technology, Filter wants you to know about it.
The Los Angeles Times had fun covering Yahoo Inc.'s annual analyst meeting yesterday, noting that there was one word on the tip of everyone's tongue but which was only uttered once. Yes, it's "GOOGLE," of course, the 800-pound search engine that threatens to beat the stuffing out of all of its competitors. "At their annual analyst meeting here Thursday, Yahoo Inc. executives tried to reassure investors that a certain Internet search provider, soon to be bolstered by the most anticipated initial public offering in years, wouldn't hurt business. 'We thrive on competition,' Chief Executive Terry Semel said. But the company whose name has become a verb remained unspoken for nearly three hours. Yahoo seemed to find 10 to the 100th power ways to avoid boosting its competitor's name recognition any higher."
It gets better: "Senior Vice President Jeff Weiner said CNN.com had switched to Yahoo's search engine the day before. From which? 'I can't remember.' Even analysts got in on the game. 'How do you get Yahoo to be as synonymous with search as that company that starts with a 'G'?' asked SoundView Technology Group's Jordan Rohan. Finally, at 11:04 a.m., Weiner uttered the word, but only in passing: 'Google.'"
• The Los Angeles Times: Yahoo Execs Just Didn't Want to Name Their Competition (Registration required)
The Washington Post provided more details on Yahoo's pep talk: "Yahoo executives argued yesterday that the company has some competitive advantages over Google, since it has 141 million registered users who visit Yahoo's Web site each month to access their e-mail, check the online yellow pages, monitor their stock portfolios and shop in its marketplace of merchants. 'Yahoo is pretty multidimensional. It is a great search engine, but it is much more than a search engine,' said Cammie Dunaway, Yahoo's senior vice president of marketing."
• The Washington Post: Yahoo Sees Huge Demand For Searches (Registration required)
The San Jose Mercury News reported that Yahoo Mail will suddenly offer a heck of a lot more storage space, not unlike a certain mail program in beta testing that begins with the letter "g." Oh! And wait! There's more! "Yahoo executives said they are working on 50 different search projects but provided only a rough outline of them. Increasing relevancy, providing access to a bigger index of Web pages (including those that change frequently, such as auctions) and providing more frequent updates were all listed as priorities," reported the San Francisco Chronicle. It's almost kind of cute to see million-dollar companies dance this hard to get some attention...
• The San Jose Mercury News: Yahoo to Overhaul Its E-mail Service (Registration required)
• The San Francisco Chronicle: Yahoo to Boost search
No Hot Flashes Here
The Heat Is On? No, that's just a Glenn Frey song as far as Intel Corp. is concerned. "Intel said Thursday that it was not experiencing heat problems with its newest manufacturing process, seeking to dispel rumors about why it suddenly canceled its next desktop computer chip," the San Jose Mercury News reported. "'There has been a lot of speculation that we have thermal issues,'" COO Paul Otellini said. "Let me dispel that. We don't."
And to dispel some other fulsome rumors about Intel and its canceled Tejas chip, we have more from the Merc: "Intel's Otellini also said that Tejas' demise did not mark the end of the core design of the latest Pentium 4, code-named Prescott, which was launched early this year. 'There has been some speculation that Prescott was the end of the line, after the cancellation of Tejas,' Otellini told analysts. 'Nothing is farther from the truth.' Otellini did not give any more details about the replacement chips for Tejas except to reiterate that they will likely ship in 2005." That's fine, but to tell the truth, we're more interested in knowing what it feels like to have thermal issues...
• The San Jose Mercury News: Intel battles rumors (Subscription required)
Cindy Webb is out today and Friday. She will return on Monday.
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