Lots of interesting tech news this week, including items about Google, Bing, Yahoo, Germany and… Neanderthals?!
Bing and Yahoo Cooperate, Compete Against Google
As of Aug 24th Yahoo’s (yahoo.com) U.S. and Canadian search engine results officially began coming from Bing (bing.com), Microsoft’s search engine. In July 2009, the 2 companies reached a historic 10-year agreement to cooperate in an effort to effectively compete with search giant Google. Why offer the same results though both search engines? The interface is the answer. While some prefer Bing’s no-distractions interface, many others prefer Yahoo’s combination of news, features and e-mail.
Google Combines Google Voice with G-mail
On Wednesday, Search giant Google announced that users in the U.S. and Canada could now make free phone calls through their popular e-mail service. Gmail continues to evolve from strictly an e-mail service into an all-in-one communications service that allows people to manage contacts, e-mail, chat, video conference, and now phone calls. Low rates are also available for international calling as well. Calls will be free at through the end of the year. This move puts Google in direct competition with local and national telephone companies as well as VOIP companies such as Skype and Vonage. the response to this feature was huge. Google claims 1 million calls were placed through Gmail in one 24-hour period. Wow!
Germany Proposes Facebook Limits on Hiring
As part of new laws aimed at protecting privacy, the German government is proposing restrictions on how employers use social networking sites such as Facebook. Privacy concerns led to the addition of language in a new workplace privacy proposal. Potential employers would be allowed to search for Web-based information on job-networking sites like LinkedIn or Xing, but would be restricted from using information from social-networking sites like Facebook.
Monster.com Acquires Yahoo! HotJobs
One of the largest online job websites, Monster.com, has finalized a $225 million deal to acquire Yahoo’s online job website, HotJobs. In addition, Monster will become the exclusive provider of job and career content to Yahoo for 3 years. Monster execs say the deal will allow them to reach about 62 percent of the U.S. population. Monster.com is currently the top source of job listings for employers in 19 of the top 20 industries and in 45 of the top 50 cities.
MEeanderthal app for Android & iPhone
Now this is unique. Ever wonder what you might look like as an early human? Find out with the first app ever created by the Smithsonian Museum. It makes the morphing technology used in the Smithsonian available for free on mobile devices Upload an image or take a picture with your smartphone and watch it morph into one of several early humans. You choices include Homo floresiensis, who lived between 95,000 and 17,000 years ago; Homo neanderthalensis who lived 200,000 to 28,000 years ago; and Homo heidelbergensis who lived 700,000 to 200,000.
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