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Google and Yahoo Settle Overture Lawsuit
An anonymous reader writes "Google and Yahoo have apparently settled their ongoing lawsuit involving patented on-line ad technology owned by Yahoo subsidiary Overture. (U.S. Patent 6,269,361). According to reports, Google will issue 2.7 million common shares to Yahoo in return for a license. Read more about the infringement suit here. This move is expected to lower any potential downsides to Google's upcoming IPO."
Yes, this obviously should have been posted under either Books or Apache.
Support the First Amendment. Read at -1
Google Exec 1: "Yahoo is suing us for the way we display ads."
Exec 2: "Yeah, but look, this IPO thing is great! Look, it's so easy. I can just create a couple million shares here and and do whatever I..."
Exec 1: "Problem solved."
Perhaps they could call the merged entity GooHoo, well it beats Yagle anyway.
Nah. Post it under it so we can all bitch about the color scheme.
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
Although this looks like a straightforward patent suit, there are more dubious motives at play here. Specifically Google was in the middle of developing a new search technology that would finally bring search technology into 93% of all North American households (world wide estimates vary based on the region). Yahoo! used the suit to dilute Google's stock price and drain their cash reserves while Yahoo! develops their own alternative solution in a partnership with MSN.
I was skeptical at first until I was given a demo of the new technology by one of my old graduate school friends who is working for Google. The tool's interface is similar to Google's current standard search interface (although a verbal UI is under development). The killer feature, the feature that would have made Google search ubiquotous, is the ability to search for physical objects. I simply typed in "my keys" and I was given a reply "Your right pocket", along with a short description of the object, the # of key, use of the keys, and their GPS location. Amazing!
My friend, who for obvious reasons must go unnamed, told me the lawsuit will force google to shut down the project because the only way they could fund it was through context based advertisements (based on the infringing patent). He did however point me to this backdoor. I can't promise it will stay up very long... especially with the Slashdot crowd using and abusing it... so check it out while you can.
My fiancee painted our bedroom this color because she finds it "soothing". I guess I've just got used to it.
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl