Google Inc cofounder Sergey Brin called Microsoft Corp's takeover bid for Yahoo Inc an "unnerving" maneuver that would threaten innovation on the Internet.
Brin reiterated his company's position that a merger could violate antitrust laws and harm Internet users.
Brin made the comment after an event at the Mountain View, California-based firm's headquarters for the Google Lunar X Prize, a race to land a privately funded robotic spacecraft on the moon.
"The Internet has evolved from open standards, having a diversity of companies," Brin said after the event. "And when you start to have companies that control the operating system, control the browsers, they really tie up the top Web sites and can be used to manipulate stuff in various ways. I think that's unnerving."
Meanwhile, a US medical clinic revealed on Thursday that it is helping Google test an online health record service intended to compete with one launched last year by Microsoft.
Cleveland Clinic in the state of Ohio said it plans to enroll up to 10,000 patients in an invitation-only private pilot project in collaboration Google.
The Google Health service is crafted to let patients use the Internet to efficiently and privately share their medical information with various health care providers and pharmacies, the clinic said.
Google chose Cleveland Clinic because it already lets patients manage electronic medical records online.
"The partnership with Google is an example of true innovation in health care," said clinic chief executive Delos Cosgrove, who is a member of Google's Health Advisory Council.
The collaboration will let Google test software tools built to allow patients to securely exchange medical information such as prescriptions, allergies and illnesses with health care providers, the clinic said.
Taiwan’s Lee Chia-hao (李佳豪) on Sunday won a silver medal at the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham, England, a career best. Lee, 25, took silver in the final of the men’s singles against world No. 1 Shi Yuqi (石宇奇) of China, who won 21-17, 21-19 in a tough match that lasted 51 minutes. After the match, the Taiwanese player, who ranks No. 22 in the world, said it felt unreal to be challenging an opponent of Shi’s caliber. “I had to be in peak form, and constantly switch my rhythm and tactics in order to score points effectively,” he said. Lee got
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
CHANGE OF TONE: G7 foreign ministers dropped past reassurances that there is no change in the position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including ‘one China’ policies G7 foreign ministers on Friday took a tough stance on China, stepping up their language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to “one China” policies. A statement by ministers meeting in Canada mirrored last month’s Japan-US statement in condemning “coercion” toward Taiwan. Compared with a G7 foreign ministers’ statement in November last year, the statement added members’ concerns over China’s nuclear buildup, although it omitted references to their concerns about Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Also missing were references stressing the desire for “constructive and stable relations with China” and
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said it has lodged a protest with Pretoria after the name of the Taipei Liaison Office in South Africa was changed to the “Taipei Commercial Office” on the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation’s (DIRCO) Web site. In October last year, the South African government asked Taiwan to relocate the Taipei Liaison Office, the nation’s de facto embassy, out of Pretoria. It later agreed to continue negotiating through official channels, but in January asked that the office be relocated by the end of this month. As of the middle of last month, DIRCO’s Web
RSS