Yahoo! to launch SpotM in India

Internet giant Yahoo! is all set to launch its Orkut-equivalent in India. Called SpotM, the social networking site is being tested out at its US headquarters.
Financial Chronicle had reported earlier that Yahoo! was working on such a product to take on Google’s Orkut and that it will be launched in a few months.


SpotM, according to people familiar with the development, will make its presence in India in a few weeks’ time. It promises to be an interactive site, and just like Orkut, a medium to spot one’s friends and keep track of them. SpotM will be an India-specific site.

Yahoo! India when contacted had this to offer: “As a global company, Yahoo! encourages each market to innovate for their local audience based on local user needs. Yahoo! India is in the early stages of working on an invitation-only communications experiment for users in the Indian market. We will share additional details about this product if and when we launch it publicly,” said a Yahoo! India spokesperson.


However, it is pretty clear that Yahoo! India is dying to launch the product in a market like India where Orkut has become the most-talked-about social networking site. “The testing is at an advanced stage and bloggers have already started to talk about it,” said the person tracking the development.

Another interactive Yahoo! site, pingbox, went live on Wednesday morning. Pingbox it helps one chat privately with visitors on social network profiles, blogs or website through Yahoo! Messenger.

The company, which has 500 million users globally, has been on an innovation over-drive in the recent past. Recently, it launched a product called Local, a ‘yellow pages’ platform online in India. Post the Microsoft bid, an analyst said, Yahoo! seems to have woken up.

GOOGLE PHONE WINS CHEERS, REQUESTS FOR BETTER

New York
The Economic Times

Nice try with the new phone, Google. Better luck next time.

That's what some seem to be saying about Google Inc's first foray into the world of cell phones. But while it may not attract long lines like Apple Inc's iPhone, it offers much to those looking to use their phones for more than talking.

So what's it like? The G1, which is made for Google by HTC Corp and sold by Deutsche Telekom unit T-Mobile, actually resembles an older handset the Sidekick, a soapbar-shaped phone also created by G1 designer Andy Rubin, the father of Google's Android mobile operating system. It has touch-screen controls, and a miniature computer keyboard that is uncovered by sliding the screen out.

This means a chunkier gadget than the svelte iPhone.

But it makes for a more familiar typing experience for consumers who dislike iPhone's virtual keypad, especially for typing longer notes.

The G1, which was greeted with cheers when it was unveiled in New York on Tuesday, shares many functions with iPhone -- a full web browser, an online market to buy games and software, and a music player. This will work in its favor for shoppers whose expectations from Google weren't as lofty.

Experts were not as giddy. Some analysts noted its lack of some typical smartphone features such as corporate e-mail and companion desktop software.

"This is an important device, but there has to be more to it," Michael Gartenberg a Jupitermedia analyst who described the phone as "a good first step" after the launch, even as he created a checklist of what he wants for the next versions.

NEW YORK TRANSIT ADDED TO GOOGLE'S MAP SERVICE

New York
The Economic Times

Google has added the biggest public transportation system in the US to its popular mapping service, showing travelers how to navigate New York City's mass transit system.

As of Tuesday, people looking up locations in the city get public transit options alongside driving directions. The feature includes information about subways, buses and commuter railroads.

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority and some other organizations already provide transit trip planners, but Google executives note that their version is integrated with other search features, such as street views and restaurant reviews.

Google, the world's largest search engine, offers transit information in about 70 other cities worldwide, including Chicago and Tokyo. The Mountain View, California-based company worked for two years to add 40,000 subway stations, bus stops and other points on the New York metropolitan area's mass transportation network, executives said.

TOP PROGRAMMERS COMPETE AT GOOGLE CODE JAM '08

Mint

Top coders from across the Asia Pacific region competed at the semi-finals of the global computer programming contest ‘Google Code Jam 2008’ in Bangalore, Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul, and Sydney.

The programmers were selected by an online competition that tested coding skills and creativity with three rounds of challenging problems. The group assembled to face their next set of challenges that will enable them to advance to the final round at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View in November.

2008 will be the first year with regional semifinal playoffs in over ten countries. Prize money of over $80,000 will be distributed amongst the winners

“It’s a good opportunity to introduce the best of the programming world to our offices across the globe and demonstrate the diverse experiences that Google offers engineers worldwide,” said Prasad Ram, R&D head, Google India.

Created as a side project by a team of enthusiastic Google employees including previous Code Jam winners, the contest aims to bring together the brightest programmers from across the globe, and supports all programming languages.

Big Bang Experiment: Large Hadron Collider atom smasher at CERN

Source: CERN

Large Hadron Collider prepares for the Big Bang

By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
Turning on the Large Hadron Collider, the biggest scientific experiment of all time, is not as simple as flicking a switch.

The latest stage of commissioning, a major test by technicians, will only see the first attempt to circulate a beam in the giant machine near Geneva, which is housed in a 17 mile circumference tunnel.

However, the step comes at the end of 14 years of effort. Robert Aymar Director General of CERN says 10th September 2008 is "a very remarkable date" and the "start of an era."
The LHC should, if all goes well, be the world's most powerful particle accelerator, generating particle beams seven times more energetic than any previous machine, and around 30 times more intense when it reaches design performance, probably by 2010.

Inside the tunnel, two beams of particles travel at close to the speed of light with very high energies before colliding with one another. The beams travel in opposite directions in separate pipes - two tubes kept at ultrahigh vacuum.

They are guided around the accelerator ring by a strong magnetic field, achieved using superconducting magnets. These are built from coils of special electric cable that operates in a superconducting state, efficiently conducting electricity without resistance or loss of energy.

A key part of commissioning the atom smasher was chilling these magnets to a bracing -271°C - a temperature colder than outer space. For this reason, much of the accelerator is connected to a distribution system of liquid helium, which cools the magnets.

Thousands of magnets of different shapes and sizes are used to direct the beams of particles around the accelerator.

These include 1232 dipole magnets of 15 metres length which are used to bend the beams, and 392 quadrupole magnets, each up to seven metres long, to focus the beams. Just prior to collision, another type of magnet is used to 'squeeze' the particles closer together to increase the chances of collisions.

The particles are so tiny that the task of making them collide is akin to firing needles from two spots more than six miles apart with such precision that they meet halfway.
All the controls for the accelerator, its services and technical infrastructure are housed under one roof at the Control Centre of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, known by its French acronym, CERN.

From here, and within the next month or so, the beams inside the LHC will be made to collide at four locations around the accelerator ring, corresponding to the positions of the huge particle detectors, the "eyes" of the vast machine.

One of them is ATLAS, which is about 45 meters long, more than 25 meters high, and weighs about 7,000 tons. It is about half as big as the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and weighs the same as the Eiffel Tower or one hundred empty jumbo jets.

If all the data from ATLAS would be recorded, the information would fill 100,000 CDs per second. This would create a stack of CDs 450 feet high every second, which would reach to the moon and back twice each year.

As for what the eyes of the LHC will see, Prof Brian Greene, a theorist at Columbia University, New York, tells Newsweek that he is most confident that they will catch a glimpse of supersymmetry, the idea that "for ever known particle species in the world - electrons, quarks and so on - we should see a partner particle that is as yet undiscovered."
He adds that it "could provide evidence for more than three dimensions of space."

Prof Ed Witten, a theorist who works at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, likens the LHC to the Hubble space telescope: "It's built to explore the universe and understand it better."
Prof Alan Guth, a cosmologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, adds: "What we're trying to understand is the first fraction of a second of the history of the universe."
"As a project, it's magnificent," says Prof Frank Wilczek of MIT, who has received death threats from some of the cranks who fear the start of the machine could mark the end of the world. "I like to say it's our civilization's answer to the Pyramids of Egypt."

For more pictures, follow the below link:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/08/the_large_hadron_collider.html

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

Legal bid to stop CERN atom smasher from 'destroying the world'

The world's biggest and most expensive scientific experiment has been hit by a last minute legal challenge, amid claims that the research could bring about the end of the world.

By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent

Critics of the Large Hadron Collider - a £4.4 billion machine due to be switched on in ten days time - have lodged a lawsuit at the European Court for Human Rights against the 20 countries, including the UK, that fund the project.

The device is designed to replicate conditions that existed just a fraction of a second after the Big Bang, and its creators hope it will unlock the secrets of how the universe began.

However, opponents fear the machine, which will smash pieces of atoms together at high speed and generate temperatures of more than a trillion degrees centigrade, may create a mini-black hole that could tear the earth apart.

Scientists involved in the project have dismissed the fears as "absurd" and insist that extensive safety assessments on the 17 mile long particle accelerator have demonstrated that it is safe.

The legal battle comes as the European Nuclear Research Centre (CERN), in Geneva, prepares to send the first beam of particles around the machine at the official switch on, on September 10, although it will be several weeks before the first particles are collided together.

Opponents of the project had hoped to obtain an injunction from the European Court of Human Rights that would block the collider from being turned on at all, but the court rejected the application on Friday morning. However, the court will rule on allegations that the experiment violates the right to life under the European Convention of Human Rights.

Professor Otto Rössler, a German chemist at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen who is one of the most vocal opponents of the LHC and was one of the scientists who submitted the complaint to the court, said: "CERN itself has admitted that mini black holes could be created when the particles collide, but they don't consider this a risk.

"My own calculations have shown that it is quite plausible that these little black holes survive and will grow exponentially and eat the planet from the inside. I have been calling for CERN to hold a safety conference to prove my conclusions wrong but they have not been willing.

"We submitted this application to the European Court of Human Rights as we do not believe the scientists at CERN are taking all the precautions they should be in order to protect human life."

Professor Rössler claims that, in the worst case scenario, the earth could be sucked inside out within four years of a mini black hole forming.

The case he and his colleagues have put before the European Court of Human Rights argues that the Large Hadron Collider violates the right to life and right to private family life under the European Convention of Human Rights

It sets out a series of arguments that suggest the collider could produce mini black holes that would permanently come into existence and grow uncontrollably.

But a safety report published earlier this year by experts at CERN and reviewed by a group of external scientists gave the Large Hadron Collider the all clear. It concluded that there was little theoretical chance of the collider producing mini black holes that would be capable of posing a danger to the earth.

It stated that nature routinely produces higher energy collisions on the earth than will be possible in the collider, when cosmic rays hit the planet

But the CERN facility is already facing a second lawsuit filed by environmentalists in Hawaii who are seeking a court order that would force the US government to intervene and delay the start up of the collider. That case is due to be heard on Tuesday.

Large particle colliders have been used by scientists to smash atoms and pieces of atoms together for more than thirty years without causing any noticeable harm to the planet.

This latest machine, however, has attracted such attention because it is the largest and most powerful ever constructed. Built 300ft beneath the French Swiss border, it will fire atomic particles around its 17 mile circumference, 11,245 times every second before smashing them headlong into each other.

The result will, for a split second, replicate the conditions that existed in the moments immediately after the birth of the universe, known as the Big Bang. In a space a billion times smaller than a speck of dust, the collisions will create temperatures 100,000 times hotter than the centre of the sun.

Among the debris thrown off by these collisions, scientists hope they will find the elusive Higgs-Boson, which is thought to be responsible for giving every other particle its mass, or weight.

But scientists admit it could be years before they start producing any meaningful results due to the challenges involved in detecting such tiny and fleeting particles.

James Gillies, spokesman for CERN, insisted that despite the huge amounts of energy the Large Hadron Collider will produce, it posed no risk to the safety of the planet.

He said: "The case before the European Court of Human Rights contains the same arguments that we have seen before and we have answered these in extensive safety reports.

The Large Hadron Collider will not be producing anything that does not already happen routinely in nature due to cosmic rays. If they were dangerous we would know about it already.

"We are now concentrating on firing the first beams around the collider and then on fine tuning it until we can get collisions, when the science will start."

A spokesman for the European Court of Human Rights confirmed the lawsuit had been lodged and the petition to obtain an emergency injunction against CERN was rejected. She said: "There will therefore be no bar to CERN carrying out these experiments but the applicants can continue with this case here at the ECHR."

For more pictures, follow the below link:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/08/the_large_hadron_collider.html

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

Large Hadron Collider facts

Roger Highfield draws together a range of interesting facts about the Large Hadron Collider atom smasher at CERN

* Though built to study the smallest known building blocks of matter, the LHC is the largest and most complex machine ever made.

* The £4.5 billion machine has a circumference of 27 km (17 miles) and lies an average of 100 metres (330 feet) under the ground, straddling French and Swiss territory.

* At full power, trillions of protons - subatomic particles - will race around the LHC accelerator ring 11,245 times a second. It is capable of achieving 600 million collisions every second.

* The machine counts as the world's largest fridge. All the magnets will be pre-cooled to -193.2°C (80 K) using 10,080 tons of liquid nitrogen, before they are filled with nearly 60 tons of liquid helium to bring them down to -271.3°C (1.9 K).

* The LHC is the emptiest place in the Solar System too. To avoid colliding with gas molecules inside the accelerator, the beams of particles travel in an ultra-high vacuum - the internal pressure of the LHC is 10-13 atmospheres, ten times less than the pressure on the Moon.

* When two beams of protons collide, they will generate temperatures more than 100,000 times hotter than the heart of the sun, concentrated within a miniscule space.

* When the experiments get running at the LHC, the four great "eyes" of the machine start observing collisions, they will generate 15 million gigabytes of data every year, that is equivalent to one thousand times the information printed in the form of books annually.

* A network of around 80,000 computers worldwide is being readied for a deluge of data that could fill a stack of CDs more than 12 miles (20 kilometres) tall.

For more pictures, follow the below link:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/08/the_large_hadron_collider.html

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

Large Hadron Collider atom smasher at CERN

The Large Hadron Collider atom smasher, or the LHC, a 17-mile circular tunnel situated 100 metres underground near Geneva, is the biggest experiment ever.

Located at CERN, the European Centre for Nuclear Research, it is the most powerful in a series of particle accelerators that, over the last 70 years, have allowed us to penetrate deeper into the heart of matter.

It will recreate conditions not seen since the big bang of creation to probe the secrets of the cosmos.

For more pictures, follow the below link:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/08/the_large_hadron_collider.html

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

Large Hadron Collider is activated

By Roger Highfield, Science Editor

Telegraph

Scientists have switched on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the device they hope will unravel some of the remaining mysteries of the universe.

At 9.30 am local time (8.30 am British Summer Time), 300 feet below the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, the most powerful particle accelerator ever built became fully operational.

The team was holding its breath in the countdown to the switch-on after a series of technical hitches, including problems with the cooling system.

The £5 billion machine has been described as a 17-mile racetrack around which two streams of protons - building blocks of matter - run in opposite directions before smashing into one another. Reaching 99.99 per cent of the speed of light, each beam will pack as much energy as a Eurostar train travelling at 90 mph.

The flashes from the collisions may help scientists reproduce the conditions that existed during the first moments after the Big Bang at the birth of the universe.

Physicists hope to learn more about the origins of mass, gravity and mysterious dark matter.
But concerns have been voiced - in particular by the German chemist Professor Otto Rossler - that black holes created by the LHC will grow uncontrollably and “eat the planet from the inside”.

These claims have been dismissed by leading scientists, including Prof Stephen Hawking of Cambridge University who said that the LHC is “feeble compared with what goes on in the universe. If a disaster was going to happen, it would have happened already.”

The switch-on saw the first stream of subatomic particles - known as Hadrons - circulating in the tunnel. The first collisions are expected in around 30 days.

The LHC will produce beams seven times more energetic than any previous machine, and around 30 times more intense when it reaches its design performance, probably by 2010.

For more pictures, follow the below link:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/08/the_large_hadron_collider.html

What is 3G ?

Know the technology

Everyone may be knowing that the Apple's iPhone 3G has been launched in India . But many of us are not aware what is 3G. so let's have a brief look into it.

What is 3G?

3G is the next generation of wireless network technology that provides high speed bandwidth (high data transfer rates) to handheld devices. The high data transfer rates will allow 3G networks to offer multimedia services combining voice and data.
Additional features also include HSPA(High-Speed packet Access) data transmission capabilities able to deliver speeds up to 14.4Mbit/s on the downlink and 5.8Mbit/s on the uplink.
3G wireless networks have the bandwidth to provide converged voice and data services. 3G services will seamlessly combine superior voice quality telephony, high-speed mobile IP services, information technology, rich media, and offer diverse content.

What are the Advantages of 3G?

3G networks offer users advantages such as:
• New radio spectrum to relieve overcrowding in existing systems.
• More bandwidth, security, and reliability.
• Interoperability between service providers.
• Fixed and variable data rates.
• Always-online devices. 3G will use IP connectivity, IP is packet based (not circuit based).
• Rich multimedia services.

Apple's iPhone 3G
What are Some Disadvantages of 3G?

There are some issues in deploying 3G:
• The cost of upgrading base stations and cellular infrastructure to 3G is very high.
• Requires different handsets and there is the issue of handset availability.
• Base stations need to be closer to each other (more cost).
• Tremendous spectrum-license costs, network deployment costs, handset subsidies to subscribers, etc.
• High power requirements.

Sent by: Sridhar G

Source: FFO

Google challenges Explorer, offers new browser

San Francisco: Google Inc. is releasing its own Web browser in a long-anticipated move aimed at countering the dominance of Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer and ensuring easy access to its market-leading search engine.

The Mountain View, California-based company took the unusual step of announcing its latest product on the Labor Day holiday after it prematurely sent out a comic book drawn up to herald the new browser's arrival.

The free browser, called ''Chrome,'' is supposed to be available for downloading from Tuesday in more than 100 countries for computers running on Microsoft's Windows operating system. Google said it's still working on versions compatible with Apple Inc.'s Mac computer and the Linux operating system.

Google's browser is expected to hit the market a week after Microsoft's unveiling of a test version of its latest browser update, Internet Explorer 8. The tweaks include more tools for Web surfers to cloak their online preferences, creating a shield that could make it more difficult for Google and other marketing networks to figure out which ads are most likely to appeal to which individuals.

Although Google is using a cartoonish approach to promote Chrome, the new browser underscores the gravity of Google's rivalry with Microsoft, whose Internet Explorer is used by about 75 percent of Web surfers.

Google's lead in the lucrative Internet search market is nearly as commanding, with its engine processing nearly two-thirds of the Web's queries.

For the past few years, Google has been trying to take advantage of its search engine's popularity to loosen Microsoft's grip on how most people interact with personal computers.

The assault so far has been focused on a bundle of computer programs, including word processing and spreadsheet applications, that Google offers as an alternative to one of Microsoft's biggest money makers, its Office suite of products.

Google has tried to make its alternatives more appealing and accessible by hosting them for free over Internet connections instead of requiring users to pay a licensing fee to install them on individual computers, as Microsoft typically does.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has tried to thwart Google by investing billions in the development of its own search engine and making an unsuccessful attempt to buy Yahoo Inc. for $47.5 billion.

The tensions between Microsoft and Google now seem likely to escalate with Google's foray into Web browsing.

Until now, Google had been trying to undermine Internet Explorer by supporting Firefox, a Web browser developed by the open-source Mozilla Foundation. Bolstered by an advertising partnership with Google's search engine, Firefox ranks as the second most popular browser, with a market share of more than 10 percent. Google recently extended its advertising alliance with Firefox through 2001.

Bearing the stamp of Google's renowned brand, Chrome could be an even more formidable rival to Explorer.

Still, Google's name is no guarantee of success. For instance, Google's instant messaging service has not come close to catching up to the market-leading products made by Yahoo, Microsoft and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL.

In a blog post on Monday, Google touted Chrome as a more sophisticated Web browser better suited for displaying the dynamic and interactive content blossoming on the Web as people migrate from television, radio and newspapers.

''The Web gets better with more options and innovation,'' Sundar Pichai, Google's vice president of product management, and Linus Upson, Google's engineering director, wrote in the posting. ''Google Chrome is another option, and we hope it contributes to making the Web even better.''

Microsoft brushed aside the threat posed by Google in a statement Monday from Dean Hachamovitch, Internet Explorer's general manager.

''The browser landscape is highly competitive, but people will choose Internet Explorer 8 for the way it puts the services they want right at their fingertips ... and, more than any other browsing technology, puts them in control of their personal data online,'' Hachamovitch said.

Even as it has backed Firefox, Google has openly fretted about the possible ramifications of Microsoft's huge lead in Web browsing.

Google is worried that Microsoft could abuse its power by manipulating Internet Explorer's default settings in a way that might diminish traffic to Google's search engine, which serves as the hub of the largest online ad network.

In 2006, Google contacted the Justice Department to raise alarms about changes to Internet Explorer that Google believed made it more difficult to install search toolbars made by Microsoft's rivals. Although regulators decided not to intervene, Microsoft subsequently modified the way Explorer handled the selection of search toolbars.

Google challenges Explorer, offers new browser

Associated Press

San Francisco: Google Inc. is releasing its own Web browser in a long-anticipated move aimed at countering the dominance of Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer and ensuring easy access to its market-leading search engine.

The Mountain View, California-based company took the unusual step of announcing its latest product on the Labor Day holiday after it prematurely sent out a comic book drawn up to herald the new browser's arrival.

The free browser, called ''Chrome,'' is supposed to be available for downloading from Tuesday in more than 100 countries for computers running on Microsoft's Windows operating system. Google said it's still working on versions compatible with Apple Inc.'s Mac computer and the Linux operating system.

Google's browser is expected to hit the market a week after Microsoft's unveiling of a test version of its latest browser update, Internet Explorer 8. The tweaks include more tools for Web surfers to cloak their online preferences, creating a shield that could make it more difficult for Google and other marketing networks to figure out which ads are most likely to appeal to which individuals.

Although Google is using a cartoonish approach to promote Chrome, the new browser underscores the gravity of Google's rivalry with Microsoft, whose Internet Explorer is used by about 75 percent of Web surfers.

Google's lead in the lucrative Internet search market is nearly as commanding, with its engine processing nearly two-thirds of the Web's queries.

For the past few years, Google has been trying to take advantage of its search engine's popularity to loosen Microsoft's grip on how most people interact with personal computers.

The assault so far has been focused on a bundle of computer programs, including word processing and spreadsheet applications, that Google offers as an alternative to one of Microsoft's biggest money makers, its Office suite of products.

Google has tried to make its alternatives more appealing and accessible by hosting them for free over Internet connections instead of requiring users to pay a licensing fee to install them on individual computers, as Microsoft typically does.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has tried to thwart Google by investing billions in the development of its own search engine and making an unsuccessful attempt to buy Yahoo Inc. for $47.5 billion.

The tensions between Microsoft and Google now seem likely to escalate with Google's foray into Web browsing.

Until now, Google had been trying to undermine Internet Explorer by supporting Firefox, a Web browser developed by the open-source Mozilla Foundation. Bolstered by an advertising partnership with Google's search engine, Firefox ranks as the second most popular browser, with a market share of more than 10 percent. Google recently extended its advertising alliance with Firefox through 2001.

Bearing the stamp of Google's renowned brand, Chrome could be an even more formidable rival to Explorer.

Still, Google's name is no guarantee of success. For instance, Google's instant messaging service has not come close to catching up to the market-leading products made by Yahoo, Microsoft and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL.

In a blog post on Monday, Google touted Chrome as a more sophisticated Web browser better suited for displaying the dynamic and interactive content blossoming on the Web as people migrate from television, radio and newspapers.

''The Web gets better with more options and innovation,'' Sundar Pichai, Google's vice president of product management, and Linus Upson, Google's engineering director, wrote in the posting. ''Google Chrome is another option, and we hope it contributes to making the Web even better.''

Microsoft brushed aside the threat posed by Google in a statement Monday from Dean Hachamovitch, Internet Explorer's general manager.

''The browser landscape is highly competitive, but people will choose Internet Explorer 8 for the way it puts the services they want right at their fingertips ... and, more than any other browsing technology, puts them in control of their personal data online,'' Hachamovitch said.

Even as it has backed Firefox, Google has openly fretted about the possible ramifications of Microsoft's huge lead in Web browsing.

Google is worried that Microsoft could abuse its power by manipulating Internet Explorer's default settings in a way that might diminish traffic to Google's search engine, which serves as the hub of the largest online ad network.

In 2006, Google contacted the Justice Department to raise alarms about changes to Internet Explorer that Google believed made it more difficult to install search toolbars made by Microsoft's rivals. Although regulators decided not to intervene, Microsoft subsequently modified the way Explorer handled the selection of search toolbars.