Google Takes a Bite Out of the Travel Pie (The Motley Fool)

The beauty of Google (Nasdaq: GOOG - News) lies in its constant effort to reinvent itself since its launch way back in 1998, as it powers its way into new avenues of revenue generation. But what began as, and still is, essentially a search engine has now emerged as an overpowering market competitor for some.

Yes, Google is very much a part of our lives. We use it to search, listen to music online, find local discounts, download software for smartphones and tablets, and now search for convenient flight bookings. In the process, however, it has ruffled a few feathers.

The latest move
In Google's latest venture, the company used its undisputed dominance in Web-based searches by placing its own results for flight searches between two destinations, above other listings pointing to travel vendors like priceline.com (Nasdaq: PCLN - News) and Expedia (Nasdaq: EXPE - News). These vendors are already crying foul about this being an unethical move, as they derive around 20% of their site traffic with the help of Google. Priceline has already complained about being able to generate a comprehensive travel itinerary and minute-by-minute travel schedule on Google's City Tours.

Frankly speaking, as far as ethical issues are concerned, if I were part of the Google think tank, I would probably be doing the same thing -- making the best use of my resources. Online travel is a $110 billion industry, and all flight searches are done chiefly through Google, with Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT - News) Bing search engine being way down the list. But then even Microsoft does a similar thing through Bing Travel, by enabling you to book a hotel appearing on its map then and there.

How does it pay out?
So, how does Google exactly benefit from this listing move? First, it's positioning the links provided to airline sites as advertisements, although how much revenue is being derived from such a move is not yet known.

Second, it's the usual process of increasing site traffic and related advertising. And this is where the Facebook factor comes in, the single biggest challenge Google's facing these days.

You can't wish away Facebook
A recent Citi Investment Research study in September says it all. Facebook takes up about 16% of the time that Americans spend online, while it's somewhere around 11% for Google. An undisputed social networking king (where a lot of advertising revenue is flowing into) with major plans to launch a $10 billion IPO isn't good news for Google, and the Internet giant is doing all it can to beef up its muscles. Google tried a direct face-off with Google+, but it simply didn't take off, so this time it's playing the other way round.

The Foolish take
Google is still probably one of the best examples of how the Internet can be used as a tool by a company to gainfully infiltrate almost all aspects of an end-user's life. Its online flight search foray is just another pointer to Google's ability to constantly innovate while trying to open new lines of business. And this just covers domestic routes, with Google working on international ones in the near future.

To stay updated on the latest developments about Google, just add it to your watchlist. It's free.

Fool contributor Subhadeep Ghose does not own shares of any of the companies mentioned in this article. The Motley Fool owns shares of Google and Microsoft. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of priceline.com, Microsoft, and Google; and creating a bull call spread position in Microsoft. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/search/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/fool/20120117/bs_fool_fool/rx174217

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Russian space probe crashes in Pacific Ocean, fish reportedly startled

On the plus side, the fish needed additional space probe parts. On Sunday night, fragments of Russia's Phobos-Grunt probe landed in the Pacific Ocean 1,250 kilometers to the west of Wellington Island in southern Chile around 17:45 GMT. The probe, which experienced a failure with its launch rocket machinery on November 8, had become marooned in Earth's orbit, destined to crash back home. The cause of the incident remains unknown and stands as the latest in a series of gaffes by the Russian space program, including an impact in Siberia by a supply ship bound for the International Space Station and the loss of three navigation satellites in the past year. It's unknown whether the probe was carrying any radioactive alien materials, but stay tuned to Engadget for your up-to-the-second guide on how to fight the Cloverfield monster in the year to come.

Russian space probe crashes in Pacific Ocean, fish reportedly startled originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Jan 2012 07:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/17/russian-space-probe-crashes-in-pacific-ocean-fish-reportedly-st/

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Windows Phone: Skype app 'coming soon'

Windows Phones will feature a Skype app "soon," according to a Skype executive. But Windows Phone owners may have to wait several months for the feature.

Microsoft?s acquisition of Skype promised to be a marriage made in an integration heaven ? especially for Windows Phones owners ? but so far it?s been all talk and no action.

Skip to next paragraph

A Skype for Windows Phone application, however, will soon make its debut, Skype vice president of products Rick Osterloh asserted in a recent interview taped at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas.

?We?re ? working on a Windows Phone product that will be coming out soon,? he said.

When Microsoft purchased the video-conferencing company for $8.5 billion in June 2011 (the deal closed in October), it talked up an unrivaled Windows Phone Skype offering that would include deep integration between the voice over IP service and its mobile operating system. But the merger still has Windows Phone owners waiting for platform integration, let alone a basic application on par with what?s already offered on iPhone, Android and BlackBerry.

That wait is likely to continue. The first Windows Phone product, according to The Verge, could be released as soon as the Mobile World Congress in February, but it won?t be the much-ballyhooed operating system-wide offering originally touted by the companies. Windows Phone owners may have to wait for this rich Skype integration until the Apollo software release, which, according to a leaked roadmap, won?t happen until the fourth quarter of 2012.

?We understand, from our own sources, that the initial release of Skype will not feature deep Windows Phone integration, and that Microsoft is planning this for ?Apollo? and beyond,? The Verge is reporting. ?Microsoft?s first Windows Phone Skype application will largely be seen as an interim release until Windows Phone ?Apollo? is made available.?

But Microsoft and Skype would like you to know that integrations are coming ? eventually. ?We?re working with a lot of different Microsoft product groups to create direct integrations,? Osterloh said. ?Right now, we?re working on Windows Phone, we?ll be working on Windows 8, Xbox, Lync. So a whole range of different Microsoft users will get access to Skype and have a great experience.?

Skype, Osterloh said, now has more than 200 million monthly users.

Next Story: Wireless controlled cameras let you broadcast your ski run live to?Ustream
Previous Story: For wider appeal, PlayStation Vita can do non-gaming apps like Twitter and Flickr?(video)

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/n3w6wJv8ntE/Windows-Phone-Skype-app-coming-soon

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S&P downgrades eurozone bailout fund to AA (AP)

BRUSSELS ? Rating agency Standard & Poor's said Monday it has downgraded the creditworthiness of the eurozone's rescue fund by one notch to AA+, putting the fund's ability to raise cheap bailout money at risk.

The downgrade follows ratings cuts for AAA-rated France and Austria, whose financial guarantees were key to the creditworthiness of the European Financial Stability Facility.

If replicated by other rating agencies, S&P's move complicates the eurozone's efforts to emerge from a debt crisis that has dragged on for more than two years. It also underlines how reliant states and financial firms still are on the opinion of rating agencies, despite policymakers across Europe vowing on Monday to curtail their influence.

Although the ratings cut had been expected after S&P downgraded nine euro countries on Friday, the EFSF's top official quickly moved to reassure investors.

"The downgrade to 'AA+' by only one credit agency will not reduce (the) EFSF's lending capacity of euro440 billion," Klaus Regling, the fund's chief executive officer, said in a statement. He added that the EFSF has enough money to fund the bailouts of Ireland and Portugal, as well as a second rescue for Greece that is likely to be decided in the coming weeks.

S&P had warned in December that it would cut the rating of the euro440 billion EFSF in line with the downgrades of any AAA country.

Moody's and Fitch, the two other big rating agencies, still have the EFSF at AAA, meaning that it would count as a top-notch investment for most funds. But analysts warn that further downgrades could follow soon.

Once another big agency cuts the EFSF's rating, the eurozone faces a stark choice. Either the fund starts issuing lower-rated bonds ? and accepts higher borrowing costs ? or its remaining AAA contributors increase their guarantees.

So far, Germany, the biggest of the four AAA economies in the eurozone, has ruled out boosting its commitments to the fund, and increases also appear politically difficult in the Netherlands and Finland. Luxembourg, the fourth country that S&P still awards its highest rating, is so small that its contributions have little impact.

Another option would be to accept that the EFSF can give out fewer loans.

Because of the EFSF's strange setup the bonds it issues to raise bailout money are underpinned by some euro720 billion in guarantees from the 14 eurozone countries that haven't received bailouts. But for issuing AAA-rated bonds, only AAA-guarantees count, taking the fund's lending capacity down to euro440 billion.

With the downgrades of France and Austria, the EFSF loses some euro180 billion in AAA-guarantees, leaving it with a loan capacity of just over euro260 billion. Of that, around euro40 billion have already been committed to the bailouts of Ireland and Portugal, and a new Greek rescue will quickly take more than euro100 billion out of the till.

While that would leave the eurozone with a severely diminished firewall, the lower lending capacity may not matter that much. To rescue Italy and Spain, the EFSF would need more than euro1 trillion, according to analysts, and whether the shortfall is euro900 billion or euro600 billion won't make much of a difference.

Regling said that more support was on the way from the eurozone's new, permanent rescue fund, the euro500 billion European Stability Mechanism, which is expected take over from the EFSF later this year. In contrast to the EFSF, the ESM has paid-in capital, similar to a bank, and is thus less vulnerable to rating downgrades.

Policymakers on Monday nevertheless lashed out against S&P's downgrades and promised to curtail their influence.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in his first public comment since France lost its AAA-rating on Friday, said the move's importance should not be exaggerated.

"We have to react to this (the French downgrade) with calm, by taking a step back," he said at a news conference in Madrid. "At the core, my conviction is that it changes nothing."

Meanwhile, Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, told European lawmakers in Strasbourg, France, that banks and other financial firms should stop basing their risk assessment solely on the opinion of rating agencies.

"One needs to ask how important are these ratings for the marketplace, for the regulators and for investors," Draghi said, adding that investors should treat the agencies' judgments as just one piece of information alongside their own analyses.

The European Union is currently in the process of putting new banking rules into law that cut the reliance on risk assessments from rating agencies. It also has proposed new legislation that would force the agencies to be more transparent about how they reach their decisions and even allow investors to sue firms that misjudged ratings "intentionally or with gross negligence."

__

David McHugh in Frankfurt and Jamey Keaten in Madrid contributed to this story.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120116/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_europe_financial_crisis

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El Salvador massacre apology on 20-year peace mark

(AP) ? El Salvador President Mauricio Funes apologized Monday for the 1981 El Mozote massacre of 936 civilians in an army counterinsurgency operation. Funes also commemorated the 20th anniversary of the 1992 peace accords that put an end to the country's 12-year civil war.

Funes said the El Mozote massacre, named for the town where it occurred between Dec. 11 to 13, 1981, was "the biggest massacre of civilians in the contemporary history of Latin America." He formally acknowledged the government's responsibility for the killings.

He also asked for forgiveness from the relatives of the estimated 12,000 people disappeared in the conflict, which left 75,000 dead.

"I ask forgiveness of the mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, brothers and sisters of those who still today do not know the whereabouts of their loved ones. I ask forgiveness from the people of El Salvador, who suffered an atrocious and unacceptable violence," Funes said in a speech in front of thousands of farmers at the massacre site.

Funes was elected on the ticket of the former leftist rebels, who were allowed to turn themselves into a political party after the 1992 peace accords. Funes himself never belonged to the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front rebel movement, nor did he serve in the army. He was a journalist at the time.

Soldiers from the now-disappeared Atlacatl battalion entered El Mozote looking for rebels and sympathizers. They apparently believed that any village in the area was backing the insurgents, and they killed anyone they could catch: men, women, children, infants. Many of the bodies were tossed into a church that was then set ablaze.

But Funes said the peace accords helped change the army.

"Twenty years after the peace accords we have a different armed forces, democratic and obedient to civilian power," Funes said. He urged the army to revise its military history and avoid honoring officers who ordered or carried out rights abuses.

Msgr. Gregorio Rosa Chavez, the assistant bishop of San Salvador, said the peace accords were valuable "but there is still a lot to do" 20 years later.

"We have a lot of ground to make up in human rights," Chavez said, "as there is in the economic situation of the poor, the poorest part of the population continue to be the poorest."

Former rebel leader Eduardo Sancho, known during the war by the code name Ferman Cienfuegos, said the accords marked a watershed, "changing the life of a guerrilla for life as a citizen."

"It was the arrival of democracy, and that was something we had never had," Sancho said. "We had lived under a dictatorship."

Former president Alfredo Cristiani, who signed the peace pact as president from 1989 to 1994, said the accords were not an end in themselves.

"They were just a beginning, but they were good enough for us to leave behind war and have the democracy we have today," Cristiani said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-16-LT-Salvador-Peace-Anniversary/id-ed75a85d2d96400ca453d9c10b8c421d

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Cold winters caused by warmer summers, research suggests

Friday, January 13, 2012

Scientists have offered up a convincing explanation for the harsh winters recently experienced in the Northern Hemisphere; increasing temperatures and melting ice in the Arctic regions creating more snowfall in the autumn months at lower latitudes.

Their findings may throw light on specific weather incidents such as the extremely harsh Florida winter of 2010 which ended up killing a host of tropical creatures, as well as the chaos-causing snow that fell on the UK in December 2010.

Published today, Friday 13 January, in IOP Publishing's journal Environmental Research Letters, this new research suggests that the trend of increasingly cold winters over the past two decades could be explained by warmer temperatures in the autumn having a marked effect on normal weather patterns, causing temperatures to plummet in the following winter.

The strongest winter cooling trends were observed in the eastern United States, southern Canada and much of northern Eurasia, which the researchers, based at Atmospheric and Environmental Research (AER), the University of Massachusetts and the University of Alaska Fairbanks, believe cannot be entirely explained by the natural variability of the climate system.

Their results showed strong warming throughout July, August and September in the Arctic, which continued through the autumn and, according to their observational data, appeared to enhance the melting of sea ice.

This warmer atmosphere, combined with melting sea ice, allows the Arctic atmosphere to hold more moisture and increases the likelihood of precipitation over more southern areas such as Eurasia, which, in the freezing temperatures, would fall as snow. Indeed, the researchers' observations showed that the average snow coverage in Eurasia has increased over the past two decades.

They believe the increased snow cover has an intricate effect on the Arctic Oscillation ? an atmospheric pressure pattern in the mid- to high-latitudes ? causing it to remain in the "negative phase".

In the "negative phase", high pressure resides over the Arctic region, pushing colder air into mid-latitude regions, such as the United States and northern Canada, and giving the observed colder winters.

The lead author of the study, Judah Cohen, said: "In my mind there is no doubt that the globe is getting warmer and this will favour warmer temperatures in all seasons and in all locations; however, I do think that the increasing trend in snow cover has led to regional cooling as discussed in the paper and I see no reason why this won't continue into the near future. Also if it continues to get much warmer in the fall, precipitation that currently falls as snow will fall as rain instead, eliminating the winter cooling."

It is also deduced that one of the main reasons conventional climate models fail to pick up on this observed winter cooling is their failure to account for the variability of snow cover, which, as demonstrated in this study, can greatly improve the accuracy of seasonal, and lengthier, forecasts.

"We show in the paper how using the snow cover in a seasonal forecast can provide a more skilful or accurate forecast. Without correctly simulating the coupling of winter climate patterns and the variability of snow fall, the models currently used by Government centres miss an important influence on winter and will therefore continue to be deficient in predicting winter weather on seasonal time scales, and even longer decadal time scales," continued Cohen.

###

Institute of Physics: http://www.iop.org

Thanks to Institute of Physics for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116723/Cold_winters_caused_by_warmer_summers__research_suggests

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Synaptics Clearpad 7300 multitouch display hands-on (Video)

Synaptics is a touchscreen-interface company that has around 30 customers, but since that list includes the top 15 smartphone makers and the top 15 tablet manufacturers, it does okay for itself. The company rented a quiet booth at the back of CES to show off its impressive new ten-finger touchscreen tech. The Clearpad 7300 is a significantly smaller unit: to demonstrate the company pulled apart a HP touchpad and swapped out the 15-chip daughter board with a single chip -- still recognizing ten inputs at a refresh rate of 100Hz. The company also had a Windows 8 demo unit (it's partnered with Redmond) that allows five-finger touch. It'll allow you to depress a software shift key without toggling and play piano with five fingers at once. We also saw a calibration unit just acting on a piece of glass (held mid-air) that could still register ten interactions. The technology will be arriving towards the end of the year and will be an integral part of all the Windows 8 tablet launch. Head on past the break to see us take the unit for a ride.

Sean Buckley contributed to this report.

Continue reading Synaptics Clearpad 7300 multitouch display hands-on (Video)

Synaptics Clearpad 7300 multitouch display hands-on (Video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kuwait activist: Police disperse 'stateless' rally (AP)

KUWAIT CITY ? A Kuwaiti human rights activist says riot police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse protesters who claim the Gulf nation is depriving them of citizenship and rights.

Taher al-Baghli from the Kuwait Society for Human Rights says police made arrests Friday among the protesters, mostly descendants of desert nomads who are considered stateless by Kuwait.

They seek access to the oil-rich nation's extensive benefits, like free health care and state jobs.

Kuwait's Interior Ministry said Thursday that it would not tolerate further demonstrations. Police set up barricades around a square in Jahra, west of Kuwait City, where the protesters have gathered for the past few Fridays.

Kuwait is scheduled to hold parliament elections Feb. 2. The stateless residents can't vote.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/energy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120113/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_kuwait

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Archuleta 'excited' to shoot Philippine TV series (AP)

MANILA, Philippines ? "American Idol" runner-up and Murray, Utah, native David Archuleta says he's "excited" about working on a Philippine TV series.

His Filipino co-stars Jasmine Curtis-Smith and Eula Caballero welcomed him with flower garlands at Manila's airport Friday. They'll be shooting the TV5 drama the next few weeks.

Fans and journalists jostled to take pictures as the 20-year-old singer emerged from the airport gate.

Archuleta said in a video blog before leaving the U.S. that he has taken acting lessons to prepare. He says: "I'm excited about it. ... This is a new experience for me."

TV5 Vice President Perci Intalan says "it's a dream come true" for the network to have Archuleta in a Filipino show.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/music/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120113/ap_en_mu/as_people_archuleta

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America Stressed Out, Overweight and Depressed: Study (ContributorNetwork)

According to the 2011 Stress in America report, released on January 11, 39 percent of the 1,226 Americans who took the American Psychological Association's online survey report that their stress has increased in the past year. And respondents who reported higher levels of stress were more likely to be obese or suffering from depression.

"The Stress in America survey continues to show a nation at a crossroads when it comes to stress and health," said psychologist Norman B. Anderson, CEO and executive vice president of the American Psychological Association, in a press release that accompanied the survey. "We are caught in a vicious cycle where our stress exceeds our own definition of what is healthy, and those who are already living with a chronic illness report even higher levels of stress. Yet we're ill-equipped to make changes to better manage that stress."

While more adults acknowledge that stress can impact their health, contributing to illnesses such as heart disease, depression and obesity, only 29 percent of respondents felt like they did an excellent or very good job of managing or reducing stress in their lives. The most commonly cited causes of stress for Americans include money problems (75 percent), work (70 percent) and the economy (67 percent). Relationships, family responsibilities, family health problems and personal health concerns were also given by more than half of the respondents as stressors in their lives.

According to the study, slightly more people stated that they relieve stress by listening to music than those who gave exercise as their favorite way to unwind. Those who said spending time with friends and family relieved their stress has declined from 46 percent in 2010 to 38 percent in 2011. More than half (51 percent) of respondents stated that it takes a great amount of time and effort to get their families to exercise and cite lack of motivation as well as work and personal obligations as the reasons they don't exercise more themselves. Respondents felt that eating well and exercising were less important to a healthy lifestyle than good family relationships and friendships, managing stress, getting enough sleep and doing well at work.

Fewer than half of all men and women feel satisfied with their financial security. Women report higher stress levels than men do, though men are less likely to feel that they are doing excellent or very good at handling personal relationships, eating healthy or getting enough sleep, the study showed. Men are also less likely than women to report that they think psychologists can help them to make lifestyle and behavior changes and more likely to report diagnoses of chronic illnesses such as high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and heart disease or heart attack.

The study's results said Americans living on the East Coast report the most stress and are least able to deal with that stress. Westerners are the healthiest and least likely to have physical issues that are attributed with stress. Most frequent cause of stress in the lives of those living on the East Coast is money, the study showed, while those in the South and West say family responsibilities are stressing them out. However, residents in the West also cite spending time with family and friends as a way to manage stress more often than respondents in other regions. More residents of the East Coast drink alcohol and do yoga, while those in the Midwest and South are more likely to pray during times of stress.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120113/hl_ac/10824341_america_stressed_out_overweight_and_depressed_study

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