Brazil papers pull out of Google

20 October 2012 Last updated at 15:16 ET

Newspapers accounting for 90% of the circulation in Brazil have abandoned Google News.

Brazil's National Association of Newspapers says all 154 members had followed its recommendation to ban the search engine aggregator from using their content.

The papers say Google News refused to pay for content and was driving traffic away from their websites.

Google said previously that the service boosted traffic to news websites.

"Staying with Google News was not helping us grow our digital audiences, on the contrary," said the association's president, Carlos Fernando Lindenberg Neto.

"By providing the first few lines of our stories to Internet users, the service reduces the chances that they will look at the entire story in our websites," he said, in an interview with the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas.

'A billion clicks'

The National Association of Newspapers, known by its Portuguese acronym ANJ, carried out an experiment with Google that began in December 2010.

This allowed Google News to carry the top line of news stories, to raise curiosity and get readers to click on the full story on the newspapers' sites.

But the ANJ says the experiment has failed.

Among the 154 titles that have pulled out from Google News are some of the country's most important news sites, such as O Globo and O Estado de Sao Paulo.

At a recent meeting of the American Press Association in Sao Paulo, Google defended its decision not to pay for the headlines from news websites.

"Google News channels a billion clicks to news sites around the world," said Google's Public Policy Director, Marcel Leonardi.

He compared the ANJ's demands to taxing a taxi driver for taking tourists to eat at a particular restaurant.

Brazil's newspaper association said that, despite leaving Google News, many of the news organisations' internet portals will still be listed by the aggregator.

Internet users using Google - but not Google News - will still be able to find content from most newspapers' sites.

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Error sees Google stock suspended

18 October 2012 Last updated at 16:47 ET Continue reading the main story

Trading in Google shares was suspended for two-and-a-half hours after the internet giant released its third-quarter results early by mistake.

Its quarterly profits fell 20% from a year earlier to $2.18bn (£1.35bn) - below analysts' expectations.

Google blamed financial printing firm RR Donnelley for filing an early draft of the results, which had been expected after the closing bell.

Shares in Google were down 9% when trading in the stock was suspended.

When trading resumed, the shares recovered slightly to end the day 8% lower.

Google chief executive Larry Page apologised to analysts on a conference call after the market closed.

"I'm sorry for the scramble earlier today," he said, adding that the company had had a strong quarter.

'Pending Larry quote'

In a statement after the inadvertent release, Google said: "Earlier this morning RR Donnelley, the financial printer, informed us that they had filed our draft 8K earnings statement without authorisation.

"We have ceased trading on Nasdaq while we work to finalise the document. Once it's finalised we will release our earnings, resume trading on Nasdaq and hold our earnings call as normal at 1:30 PST."

Continue reading the main story

Ben Thompson Business reporter, New York

---

While Google's results are disappointing, coming in well below analyst expectations, it was their early publication that spooked investors. Shares slumped 9%, wiping $19bn off the value of Google before trade was suspended, and only managed to claw back a small proportion of those losses when trade resumed.

But why is that accidental publication so damaging? Largely because it doesn't give Google the opportunity to explain the figures or manage market expectations. In normal circumstances, earnings reports come with a whole series of conference calls and briefings between the firm's management and investors, traders and journalists. Without the briefings, the numbers are left to speak for themselves.

There's also the old saying that markets don't like surprises. Results being published three hours early counts as one of those surprises. So Google is now on the back foot, trying to reassure the markets and give some context to the figures.

The company's draft results statement, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, was published at 09:30 Pacific time (16:30 GMT), three-and-a-half hours ahead of schedule.

It says "PENDING LARRY QUOTE" at the beginning, referring to chief executive Larry Page and indicating that it was not ready for publication.

Its final results statement, published at 12:00 Pacific time (19:00 GMT), included the following quotation from Mr Page: "We had a strong quarter. Revenue was up 45% year-on-year, and, at just fourteen years old, we cleared our first $14bn revenue quarter.

"I am also really excited about the progress we're making creating a beautifully simple, intuitive Google experience across all devices."

Net revenue rose to $11.3bn from $7.5bn, but was still below forecasts.

Including websites that generate traffic for Google's ads, revenue rose 45% to $14.1bn.

'No time'

The slide in Google's share price took the company's market value back down below that of Microsoft, which it had overtaken earlier this month.

Joe Saluzzi from Themis Trading said, "you can't make those mistakes any more".

He added: "Mistake or not, the earnings are earnings. The problem is when this happens in the middle of the day, there is no time for a conference call to massage it, there is no time for analysts' questions and for an evaluation."

Google completed the purchase of the loss-making mobile phone maker Motorola Mobility for $12.5bn earlier this year and has been struggling to turn the firm around.

Costs related to the acquisition - for employee stock compensation and restructuring charges - knocked Google's overall results, as did the strong dollar.

The company said that if foreign exchange rates had been unchanged, its revenue would have been $136m higher.

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Developers quit Kickstarted game

19 October 2012 Last updated at 06:58 ET

Development on a video game funded by the crowdsourced funding site Kickstarter has stopped as all its programmers have quit.

More than 1,200 people backed Haunts: The Manse Macabre when it ran a funding campaign via Kickstarter in June 2012.

It pledged to produce a horror game but that has been mothballed after running out of cash and staff.

Experts said it could be first of many shelved and showed the perils inherent in the making of video games.

Haunts sought $25,000 (£15,590) from Kickstarter but the project proved popular and meant the game's developers got $28,739 (£17,895) to fund completion of the game. Prior to the funding appeal Haunts creator Mob Rules Games had spent about $42,500 getting the basics of the title completed.

The end result was supposed to be a haunted house horror game in which players could take on the role of the house's inhabitants or intruders investigating what lived within it.

Now Mob Rules Games boss Rick Dakan has revealed that the game's development has prematurely halted.

"The principal cause for our dire condition is that there are no longer any programmers working on the game," said Mr Dakan in a blogpost updating backers.

Bug testing

Haunts' lead programmer was only contracted to work for Mob Rules for a year, said Mr Dakan, and having returned to Google has no spare time to keep working on the game.

In addition, Mob Rules second lead programmer has quit and no longer wants to work on Haunts.

Before the pair left, said Mr Dakan, they all but finished the game but it would need extensive bug testing and refinement before backers could get at it.

Continue reading the main story

It's a real shame to see Haunts struggling"

End Quote John Walker

Unfortunately Mob Rules has no-one available to do this work. In addition, Haunts has been written in the Go programming language which is not widely used and will limit its chances of hiring new hands to complete the work.

In his blogpost, Mr Dakan apologised for how Haunts has turned out and pledged to refund any backer who wanted their money back out of his own pocket.

"My obligation to all of you generous Kickstarter backers is foremost in my mind and I have not served you as well as I should have," he said.

Risky business

John Walker, from games news site Rock Paper Shotgun, said there was always a danger that something like this would happen with projects funded via Kickstarter. There was a chance that bigger projects could go the same way, he said, and anyone using Kickstarter should be aware of the risks.

"Most people pledge at the level that promises them the final product, and so of course don't view their act as a philanthropic one, but as a purchase," he said.

Funding problems, delays and disappearing developers were all problems that games studios had to weather, he said.

"That's all part of games development, and now individuals are learning of the risks publishers take when they fund a project by the traditional models," he said.

"It's a real shame to see Haunts struggling," he said. "They've done exactly what Kickstarter suggests - being open and frank about the issues they've faced, how they've spent the money, and their attempts to resolve them."

Mr Dakan did add that zero developers, an obscure programming language and dwindling cash did not mean the game was entirely dead.

He was in talks with another games studio that might take the title on and invited anyone who might be able to help to get in touch.

"We're going to make this game, and if you can hang on for what looks to be a long road ahead, we will get it finished," he said.

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Battery inventor Ovshinsky dies

19 October 2012 Last updated at 07:06 ET

Stanford Ovshinsky, a self-taught American physicist who designed the battery now used in hybrid cars, has died aged 89 from prostate cancer.

The electronics field of ovonics was named after Mr Ovshinsky, who owned over 200 patents and has been described as a "[Thomas] Edison of our age".

He introduced the idea of "glass transistors" in 1968, which paved the way for modern flat-screen monitors.

He and his first wife Iris set up a firm called Energy Conversion Devices.

The firm specialises in manufacturing the nickel-metal hydride batteries he designed, which are still used in hybrid vehicles, and also produces large thin, flexible sheets of solar panelling also invented by Mr Ovshinsky.

He received various honorary degrees and awards but had no formal education after high school. He claimed to have taught himself science by using the public libraries of Ohio where he grew up.

His son Harvey said he was "determined to change the world".

"My father worked tirelessly 24-7, even up until he got sick, to change the world and its attitude toward sustainable energy and alternate platforms for information," he added.

Mr Ovshinsky is survived by his second wife Rosa, brother Herb, seven children and six grandchildren.

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Twitter cuts anti-Semitic tweets

19 October 2012 Last updated at 09:26 ET

Twitter has agreed to remove a flood of anti-Semitic tweets circulating on its service in France.

The offensive messages are circulating labelled with the #unbonjuif (#agoodjew) hashtag.

The tweets are being removed following the threat of legal action by a Jewish student group.

The Union of Jewish Students of France (UEJF) was planning to get a court injunction to make Twitter remove the offensive tweets.

The decision to remove the tweets emerged from a meeting between Twitter's senior management, the UEJF president Jonathan Hayoun and the group's legal representatives. During the meeting the UEJF handed over a list of the posts it wants removed.

Over the past few days the #unbonjuif hashtag has been one of the most popular phrases on Twitter among French-speaking users of the service. Many of the tweets bearing the tag contain offensive comments.

The UEJF had scored an "important victory" over Twitter on the issue, Stephane Lilty, the student body's lawyer told AFP. It has also pressed Twitter to reveal the names of those abusing the hashtag. Twitter has yet to issue an official comment about the matter.

The decision to remove the messages comes soon after Twitter shut down an account used by a German neo-Nazi group based in Hanover. The block was imposed at the request of German police. Facebook and YouTube have also agreed to block the group's accounts.

The block was carried out using a novel feature called "Country Withheld Content" it introduced earlier in 2012. This means users in Germany will be unable to see messages posted by the account but they will be visible in other nations.

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EBay 'pays only £1.2m in UK tax'

21 October 2012 Last updated at 10:36 ET

US auction site eBay has paid only £1.2m in tax in the UK, according to an investigation by the Sunday Times.

The newspaper said that its tax bill in 2010 comes despite eBay's UK subsidiaries generating sales of £800m.

The auction site - which also owns PayPal - responded that it "complies fully with all applicable tax laws".

The report comes after coffee giant Starbucks was also accused of paying just £8.6m in corporation tax in the UK over 14 years.

According to the Sunday Times, eBay had sales of £789m during 2010 in the UK at its four British subsidiaries. Using its worldwide profit margin of 23%, it would have made a profit in the UK of £181m, leading to corporation tax owed of £51m.

Instead, it paid £1.2m, the report said.

Accounts for one of its units, eBay (UK) Ltd, show that for 2010 - the last year available - it owed tax of £766,000 on profits of £4.4m.

The auction site told the BBC: "eBay in Europe works with tax authorities and complies fully with all applicable tax laws and regimes - including national, EU, and internationally recognised OECD rules."

Other large international companies have also been accused of avoiding tax in the UK.

A four-month investigation by news agency Reuters earlier this week found that Starbucks generated £398m in UK sales last year but paid no corporation tax.

It said that Starbucks had made over £3bn in UK sales since 1998 but had paid less than 1% in corporation tax.

Facebook UK paid £238,000 in tax last year, according to its accounts. Its sales were £20.4m. Most of the company's income is believed to be legally going through its European base in Dublin, where corporation tax is lower than in the UK.

And a report in the Guardian in April said that online retailer Amazon had generated sales of more than £7.6bn in the UK over the past three years but had not paid any corporation tax on the profits from those sales.

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Cash offered to teach computing

19 October 2012 Last updated at 11:32 ET By Judith Burns Education reporter, BBC News

High-flying graduates are to be given a £20,000 golden handshake to train as computer science teachers.

Ministers have asked Facebook, Microsoft and IBM to help design the training for the new teachers.

Education Secretary Michael Gove said current information and communications technology (ICT) teacher training courses would be axed from next year.

The move "could not be more welcome or more necessary", said Prof Steve Furber of the Royal Society.

Major changes to the teaching of computing in English schools are already in the pipeline. Mr Gove announced plans to scrap the existing schools ICT curriculum back in January, calling it "demotivating and dull" with pupils learning little more than basic digital literacy skills such as word processing.

Continue reading the main story

If we want our country to produce the next Sir Tim Berners-Lee... we need the very best computer science teachers in our classrooms"

End Quote Michael Gove

At the time he called instead for pupils to learn computer coding so that they could produce simple animations or their own smartphone apps.

A recent report by the Royal Society also found that computer education in English schools was "highly unsatisfactory" and highlighted a shortage of teachers capable of teaching computer science with only 35% of England's ICT teachers being subject specialists.

About 50 scholarships will be handed out in the first year and up to 500 existing ICT teachers will also be retrained to teach computer science.

Students who graduate from university with at least a 2:1 degree will be eligible for a £20,000 scholarship to train on one of the new courses, which have been set up with leading industry experts.

To qualify the candidates will need a good understanding of computer science concepts such as algorithms, logic, data networks and the internet, according to the Department for Education.

'More needed'

Prof Furber told BBC News: "Computer science was a backwater in many schools... but this is an extremely clear signal that the government is taking the problem seriously, that even in times of austerity they have heard the message and are sorting things out."

Prof Furber said the number of new computer science teachers was small and would go only part of the way to solving the problem. Ideally, he said, he would like to see one or two computer science teachers in each of England's 4,200 secondary schools.

He said existing ICT teachers "would need lots of help" to become adept in computer science, but added: "Of course there are already some excellent teachers out there doing all the right things. We are not starting from zero."

Mr Gove indicated that computer science could be added to the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) list of key academic subjects that teenagers are encouraged to study at GCSE. He said: "Computer science is not just a rigorous, fascinating and intellectually challenging subject. It is also vital to our success in the global race.

"If we want our country to produce the next Sir Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the internet, we need the very best computer science teachers in our classrooms. They need to have the right skills and deep subject knowledge to help their pupils."

Mr Gove was referring to the concept of a global system that would allow researchers anywhere to share information which was first proposed by Sir Tim while he was working at the Cern particle physics laboratory in Geneva in the 1980s. Sir Tim later named it the World Wide Web.

Labour questioned how effective the changes would be. Stephen Twigg MP, the shadow education secretary, said: "Michael Gove has developed an analogue curriculum in a digital age. His outdated EBacc places no value on subjects such as computing.

"If we are to remain competitive, we need to instigate a computer science revolution, starting with getting primary school children to learn coding."

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Android apps 'leak' personal data

22 October 2012 Last updated at 06:56 ET

Millions of people are using Android apps that can be tricked into revealing personal data, research indicates.

Scientists tested 13,500 Android apps and found almost 8% failed to protect bank account and social media logins.

These apps failed to implement standard scrambling systems, allowing "man-in-the-middle" attacks to reveal data that passes back and forth when devices communicate with websites.

Google has yet to comment on the research and its findings.

Researchers from the security group at the University of Leibniz in Hanover and the computer science department at the Philipps University of Marburg tested the most popular apps in Google's Play store.

By creating a fake wi-fi hotspot and using a specially created attack tool to spy on the data the apps sent via that route, the researchers were able to:

• capture login details for online bank accounts, email services, social media sites and corporate networks
• disable security programs or fool them into labelling secure apps as infected
• inject computer code into the data stream that made apps carry out specific commands

An attacker could even re-direct a request to transfer funds, while making it look to the app user like the transaction was proceeding unchanged.

Some of the apps tested had been downloaded millions of times, the researchers said.

And a follow-up survey of 754 people suggests users could struggle to spot when they were at risk.

"About half of the participants could not judge the security state of a browser session correctly," the researchers wrote.

"Most importantly, research is needed to study which counter-measures offer the right combination of usability for developers and users, security benefits and economic incentives to be deployed on a large scale."

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Facebook exec joins Tech City UK

22 October 2012 Last updated at 06:07 ET By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News

Facebook's European boss Joanna Shields is to leave the social network to lead the UK government's investment group for technology start-ups.

The Tech City Investment Organisation (TCIO) supports firms based near the Silicon Roundabout area of east London.

Ms Shields will replace current head Eric Van Der Kleij in January 2013.

"Joanna's experience will be hugely valuable in supporting Tech City as it goes from strength to strength," Prime Minister David Cameron said.

"The success of Tech City shows just what can happen when we back some of our most innovative and aspiring companies to grow, helping the UK compete and thrive in the global race."

Ms Shields has been Facebook's vice-president and managing director of Europe, Middle East and Africa since 2010.

Prior to that she worked at Google and teenage-focused social network Bebo.

Relaxed rules

"Working in the UK for the past decade has proven to me that this country has the potential to become a major force in digital innovation," she said.

"The seeds have been sown in east London for a dynamic and successful cluster: we have the infrastructure, the technology and the talent, now we need to accelerate the growth. I am looking forward to leading the Tech City Investment Organisation in the next phase of its development.

"With the right boost now, there is no reason why we can't make London the number one location for tech in the world."

Continue reading the main story

Now I'm sure that Joanna Shields is relishing the challenge of her new job as a standard-bearer for British technology firms. But it must be easier to leave Facebook now than it was just a few months ago when the social network was the hottest, fastest growing, most exciting company on the planet. And if more of its top talent decides that there are now more interesting challenges elsewhere, that could be a big problem.

Ms Shields will be seen as a key component if the UK is to encourage successful start-ups to begin trading on the stock market.

Unlike the US's Silicon Valley - with the likes of Google and Facebook among its success stories - similarly aspiring companies in Britain have been reluctant to go public.

To aid in this, government adviser for technology Rohan Silva is leading efforts to relax the rules for financial listing and reporting. It is hoped making it easier for UK companies to go public will entice a greater number of foreign investors.

Companies such as Mind Candy, which runs children's social network Moshi Monsters, and gig recommendation site Songkick are tipped as potential candidates to list on the London Stock Exchange.

The BBC understands that music-streaming service Spotify - which was founded in Sweden - is also among the firms the government is keen to encourage to begin trading in the UK.

'Potentially counterproductive'

TCIO was set up in April 2011 with the intent of raising the profile of UK technology companies, particularly the start-up scene.

Its role includes promoting the UK as a place for prospective entrepreneurs to move to in order to set up their own businesses.

However, the quango was criticised in June for operating in a way that was "potentially counterproductive".

Think tank Centre for London raised concerns over skill shortages and rising costs of working in the area.

At social gatherings in the area, TCIO was regularly criticised for not publicising its events or services well enough.

To counteract this, the organisation hired Benjamin Southworth as deputy chief executive in July. Mr Southworth had previously been part of 3Beards, the group behind several key industry social events.

Facebook has not yet named a successor for Ms Shields.

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Broadband providers launch appeal

22 October 2012 Last updated at 07:12 ET

BT and Virgin Media have launched a legal challenge against Birmingham City Council's plans to build a superfast broadband network.

The council had successfully applied for European Commission State Aid funding for the scheme.

The council argues that it will help local areas which are underserved by existing providers.

However Virgin Media argues there is "significant overbuild" with its current network.

Birmingham City Council wants to build a 100+Mbps (megabits per second) broadband network to serve specific local areas including Digbeth, Eastside and the city's Jewellery Quarter.

It says that businesses in those areas do not have access to "affordable" high speed broadband.

It is one of the first European cities to acquire EC State Aid for a superfast broadband initiative and the council claims "up to 1,000 jobs" could be created by the project.

'Test case'

Councillor James McKay said the council was "extremely disappointed" by the actions of BT and Virgin Media.

"The city has worked in a very positive and collaborative way with them over the last few years to help inform and develop our business case and we are surprised that they have now chosen to appeal at such a late stage," he said in a statement.

"We are liaising with government and the European Commission and we are advocating that this matter be treated with some urgency as a 'test case' for Europe and that everything that can be done to expedite it through the legal process is done."

Virgin Media said the plan "involves a significant overbuild" with its existing network.

"We fully support the Urban Broadband Fund and government ambitions to bring superfast broadband to areas not currently served by existing fibre networks," said the broadband provider.

"So it's disappointing that Birmingham City Council has put forward a scheme which is not in the interests of local people and we believe, as a result, the European Commission has made a decision based on inaccurate and misleading information which could waste public money."

"Virgin and BT have had plenty of time to modernise, and they haven't," said Chris Conder, a campaigner for rural broadband.

"It's time to stand up for the Davids against these Goliaths."

Birmingham was on the original list of 10 UK destinations set to benefit initially from a £100m UK government fund to create "super-connected" cities.

Chancellor George Osborne announced the plans earlier this year, which should see three million UK residents benefit from high-speed broadband by the year 2015.

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