Yahoo! gets personal in the UK

Yahoo!'s paid-for online dating service has been launched in the UK, Ireland, France and Germany. The success of Yahoo! Personals in the US, Canada, Hong Kong and China did much to turn around the company's fortunes in 2002, with revenues from Personals and other paid-for services pouring $89.4 million into the coffers in Q4 last year. ...more

Google advised to float

The founders of popular search engine Google, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, revealed in Sunday Business that it could be floated on the Stock Exchange. The couple launched Google three years ago when they were students at Stanford University and have watched their creation become the leading searching engine used on the Web, handling over 100 million search requests per day. The secret of Google's success can be attributed to the unique way that it hunts for relevant links, searching for the number of other web pages linking to a specific web page rather than the number of instances of the search term appearing on the page. ...more

British Library welcomes Gowers IP review

The British Library has 'broadly welcomed' the Gowers review of intellectual property law, which we reported today. Among its findings was that a right to private copying should be enshrined into UK law and that libraries should be given greater freedonm of access to digital works for archival purposes. 'We are particularly pleased that the Gowers Review recommends allowing private copying for research and copying for preservation reasons by libraries to cover all forms of content,' said Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive of the British Library. ...more

UK broadband connections overtake dial-ups

The number of broadband connections in the UK has exceeded dial-up usage for the first time. BT figures show that there are now more than 7.4 million broadband users, with two million using cable and 5. ...more

FBI salutes Microsoft for help in virus battle

The FBI has officially saluted Microsoft's efforts for tackling a computer worm attack. Specifically, it has awarded Certificates for 'Exceptional Service' to Microsoft employees for their part in the 2005 Mytob/Zotob investigation. When the Internet worm was released in mid-August 2005, FBI teams of computer and forensic experts were deployed to Rabat, Morocco and Ankara, Turkey. ...more