Google Inc.

Microsoft Gets Key Search Deals
Wall Street Journal, The | 6 hours 19 minutes ago
LAS VEGAS -- Microsoft Corp., facing a bleak economy and rivals that have outflanked it in the consumer market, plans to announce a milestone for the next version of Windows and a raft of deals designed to boost its online search business.The company is expected to make a preliminary version of Windows 7, the next major edition of its flagship operating system, available for consumers to test on their PCs starting Friday. Microsoft will also announce a five-year deal with Verizon Wireless to ...

Microsoft to Announce Verizon Wireless Deal
Wall Street Journal, The | 9 hours 5 minutes ago
LAS VEGAS – Microsoft Corp. is expected to announce a multiyear deal with Verizon Wireless to make its Internet search service broadly available on the wireless carrier's mobile phones.Microsoft's distribution deal with Verizon could provide a lift for its search business, which has lagged far behind Google Inc. in share of queries by Internet users. Google itself was negotiating a mobile search deal with Verizon, but Microsoft ended up beating out its rival. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballme...

4th UPDATE:Asia Consumer Electronics Cos Shrug Off Intel News
Wall Street Journal, The | 9 hours 4 minutes ago
(ADDS comments from Panasonic executives in 8th paragraph) LAS VEGAS (Dow Jones)--Asian consumer electronics makers expressed confidence Wednesday about their prospects this year, despite souring economic conditions and a sales warning from Intel Corp. (INTC), the world's largest chip maker and a major supplier for these companies.

What's New (Or Improved) In Health Sites
Wall Street Journal, The | 1 day 3 hours 45 minutes ago
A new crop of online tools is making it easier to be healthier in 2009.The Internet has long drawn people seeking information about health care. Last year, health Web sites drew about 72 million unique visitors, up 14% from a year earlier, according to comScore Inc., an online-marketing research firm that tracks some 200 such sites. Such strong growth comes as sites increasingly focus on some of today's leading consumer health concerns, including prescription-drug safety, quality of care, and...

Jennifer Li Puts Focus on Discipline at Baidu
Wall Street Journal, The | 1 day 3 hours 45 minutes ago
BEIJING -- When she took the chief financial officer job at Baidu Inc. 10 months ago, Jennifer Li was determined to instill better discipline into China's leading Internet search company.Her management skills were tested early by a controversy that knocked a third off Baidu's stock market value and exposed the vulnerabilities of a 9-year-old company that has focused on breakneck expansion but whose operational model now has been called into question. In China, which has the world's largest nu...

UPDATE: Time Warner Writes Down $25B In Assets, Cuts '08 View
Wall Street Journal, The | 15 hours 28 minutes ago
(Updated with analyst quotes and more information throughout) Time Warner Inc. (TWX) announced plans Wednesday to write down about $25 billion of assets in the fourth quarter - reflecting the declining values of its cable, AOL and magazine businesses - as the media giant lowered its 2008 operating outlook because of the weakening economy.

Higher Prices Loom For Data-Site Users
Wall Street Journal, The | 1 day 3 hours 46 minutes ago
Businesses are turning to outside companies to run their data centers faster than most of those companies can build additional facilities. Now demand is outpacing supply, and that could potentially drive up prices of data-center services.Amid the recession, companies that provide data centers -- the warehouses of computers that do corporate tasks such as running Web sites and backing up information -- are having a hard time coming up with the funding for new sites.

Apple's Jobs Under Treatment to Gain Weight
Wall Street Journal, The | 1 day 10 hours 29 minutes ago
Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs said a "hormone imbalance" was responsible for his dramatic weight loss, but he provided so few details of his condition that it raised new questions about his health.In a letter released Monday, Mr. Jobs, 53 years old, said he had a "nutritional problem," had begun treatment and would continue as CEO during his recovery. He said it would take him until late spring to regain weight.