Yahoo Japan Corp says it will use Google’s technology to run its search engine and advertisement delivery system.
Yahoo Japan, the country’s dominant Internet portal, said yesterday it would license the back-end technology to run its search page but would still compete with Google in all other areas.
Softbank Corp, a major Internet and mobile phone provider, controls Yahoo Japan.
Yahoo Inc, which also has a major share, has previously opted to use search technology provided by Microsoft’s search engine, Bing.
Google said that Yahoo Japan would make the contents of its broad Internet holdings, including its auction and shopping sites, available to Google’s Japanese search results.
Yahoo Japan has just over a 56 percent share of the Japanese search market, while Google has about 31 percent and Microsoft has almost 3 percent.
In other news, Google on Monday made a pitch for more government software business, unveiling a new suite of Internet-hosted calendar, e-mail and other products that meets official US security requirements.
The US-based Web giant said the latest version of Google applications for government had received US government certification under the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA).
Google program manager Kripa Krishnan said “Google Apps for Government” were the first “cloud,” or Web-based products to receive the FISMA certification, which outlines specific public sector policy and security requirements.
“This means government customers can move to the cloud with confidence,” Krishnan said in a blog post.
Google’s move is seen as a direct challenge by the search and advertising titan to Microsoft’s ubiquitous Office spreadsheet, e-mail, calendar and word processing programs.
Packaged software king Microsoft, in response to the threat of cloud-based products from Google, has recently begun offering its own business software solutions hosted online.
In China, Google has reportedly parted ways with two Chinese advertisers in the latest potential setback for the company after its standoff with the Beijing government over censorship.
The news comes after data last week showed Google’s share of the world’s biggest online market fell following its threat to pull out of China.
Google has cut ties with Universal Internet Media and Xian Weihua Network, two major advertising agencies that worked with the US firm in eastern and northwestern China, the China Daily said yesterday, citing Google China spokeswoman Marsha Wang.
“If both sides feel there is no need [to continue] to cooperate, then there comes the end of the partnership,” Wang said when asked about the report.
She would not confirm the names of the advertisers.
Google’s share of China’s online market fell to 24.2 percent in the second quarter, from 30.9 percent in the first quarter, while Chinese web search engine Baidu saw its market share rise to 70 percent in the second quarter, from 64 percent in the first three months, research company Analysys International said in a report last week.
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CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
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Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique