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Google finally put the world's oceans on the map.
During a splashy presentation at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco today, the Internet giant unveiled new water features for Google Earth, the online replica of the planet that anyone can search.
Three years ago, renowned marine scientist Sylvia Earle told John Hanke, who helped create Google Earth, that she loved the way the program helped people get to know the planet. But, she pointed out, Google had overlooked two-thirds of it.
"She turned to me with an evil grin and said: 'Why don't you rename it Google Dirt?' That kind of got under my skin," Hanke recalled. "She was right. We had been blind to the ocean."
It reminded him of a Marshall McLuhan quotation: "We shape our tools and afterwards our tools shape us."
The oceans shaped Hanke's priorities. Earle and others joined Google in a partnership to move beyond mountains and valleys to simulate the ocean so anyone can explore its vast surface and depths online.
It began as a side project for some software engineers ...
Read on »
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-- YouTube, trying to get all professional after its love fest with user-generated content, is close to a Hollywood deal. NYT
-- Best friends forever until I delete you on Facebook. NYT
-- Jason Calacanis diagnoses a new condition: Internet Asperger’s syndrome. Calacanis
-- My Nigerian payday and other offers I can't refuse are more plentiful now as online scammers proliferate. WSJ
-- The secrets of Netflix's success. Fortune
-- AdMob on a growth spurt raises more money. AdMob
-- Video games see profits migrating east. Venture Beat
-- And now for your moment of zzzzzzz zen. Cute Things Falling Asleep
-- Jessica Guynn
Photo: President Obama with economic advisor and Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Credit: Charles Dharapak / Associated Press
 Yahoo finished 2008 the way it started the year: struggling. But this time, it sunk even lower by posting its first quarterly loss in nearly seven years.
After the market closed, Yahoo said it had lost $303 million, or 22 cents a share, during the fourth quarter. That compared with a profit of $206 million, or 15 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. The Sunnyvale, Calif., Internet giant said revenue fell 1% to $1.81 billion.
It was Yahoo's first money-losing quarter since the first three months of 2002, and the first time its revenue declined since the fourth quarter of 2001.
Despite the loss, Yahoo outperformed Wall Street's lowered expectations. The financial results included one-time charges of more than $600 million to write down international assets and reduce its headcount, among other things. Excluding those charges, Yahoo earned 17 cents a share, better than the 13 cents predicted by analysts. Revenue excluding commissions paid to advertisers fell 2% to $1.38 billion, slightly better than the $1.37 billion expected by Wall Street.
It falls to Yahoo's new CEO, Carol Bartz, to discuss for the first time the company's dreary financial results and present her plans to turn around the company. Analysts expect Bartz to set the bar low for Yahoo in 2009.
She also will face questions about what, if any, plans Yahoo has to sell its search engine to Microsoft, which is eager to challenge Google's dominance in online advertising. Yahoo is vulnerable to the economic downturn because it focuses on display advertising, which hasn't fared as well as the text-based search ads that helped Google deliver an upbeat financial performance last week.
Bartz replaced Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, who ended an 18-month stint at the helm after losing potentially lucrative deals with Microsoft and Google.
Expect more tough talk from Bartz, who seems well aware how dire the situation is. She has already imposed a wage freeze on all employees through 2009. Bartz herself is getting handsome compensation: At least $19 million in cash and stock awards during her first year.
-- Jessica Guynn
Photo: Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz. Credit: Martin Sundberg / Associated Press
 WASHINGTON -- Google threw a post-inauguration party in the nation's capital Tuesday night. It had much to celebrate about Barack Obama becoming president.
As we describe in this front-page story, Google employees, including Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, threw their support behind Obama early in the campaign and now stand poised to push their agenda, which includes boosting Internet access and pushing for network neutrality. Obama's election helped make Google, which hired its first Washington employee less than three years ago, into a power player.
Given the pomp and circumstance of Inauguration Day, the Internet giant's coming out soiree at the grand Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium was an unusual hybrid of geek and glam (heavy on the geek).
Partygoers, one sporting a denim ball gown, live-blogged, Twittered and Facebooked the night away to '80s grooves.
A game room featured Guitar Hero and Wii. A white board was scrawled with requests for the incoming administration: "Launch more satellites," "educate the poor," "keep the Internet open, innovative and free." Hors d'oeuvres included hamburger shooters and pigs in a blanket.
The guest list was as eclectic as it was high-powered: Hollywood stars Ben Affleck, John Cusack and Jessica Alba; Obama transition team members Jon Favreau and John Podesta; Obama new-media guru and Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes; and Craigslist's Craig Newmark (sans tuxedo, natch). Media superstars also made an appearance, including CNN's Wolf Blitzer.
Asked why he decided to attend, former Illinois Atty. Gen. Roland Burris, who has replaced Obama in the U.S. Senate, said: "They invited me."
Observers say Google and Schmidt appear sincere in their support of the new administration, which shares many of their views. But Matthew Cooper, contributing editor of Portfolio, said that Google had no choice but to reinforce its presence in Washington with such a big splash. It has weighty policy issues that it cannot ignore, particularly after a near-disastrous run-in with the Department of Justice, which was ready to sue Google on antitrust grounds until the company abandoned its search-ad partnership with Yahoo. "There is a regulatory environment that Google has to deal with," Cooper said.
Google is already making a favorable impression on at least one lawmaker. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) praised the company, saying it has a more "charitable attitude and a willingness to compete" than many.
-- Jessica Guynn
Photo: President Obama in this October file photo is reflected in the teleprompter as he speaks at an economic summit in Florida. Pictured, from left, are Gov. Ted Strickland of Ohio, Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Gov. Bill Ritter of Colorado. Credit: Jae C. Hong / Associated Press
 At a time when the economic gloom is casting a long shadow over the technology sector, Google offered a silver lining: The Web search market stayed strong in the fourth quarter, helping the company post better-than-expected earnings.
Though Google's operating profit was up sharply, the Internet giant posted its first-ever decline in net profit. Blame bad investments and legal settlements: In its earnings report, Google said it had to write down its stakes in Time Warner's AOL unit and Clearwire, the struggling wireless Internet service provider. It also took a hit for the legal settlement with book publishers that Google announced in October.
CEO Eric Schmidt today acknowledged an "increasingly difficult economic environment." He said the Internet giant continued to hold its own while keeping a tight lid on costs.
"Now it's clear we are in a worldwide recession," Schmidt told analysts during a conference call. "We don't know how long this period will last. But we are prepared to get through this, no problem."
The Mountain View, Calif., company said fourth-quarter revenue jumped 18% to $5.7 billion, up from $4.83 billion in the year-ago quarter. Excluding commissions paid to advertising partners, Google had sales of $4.22 billion, higher than the $4.2 billion analysts had estimated.
Google reported fourth-quarter net income of $382 million, down 68% from $1.2 billion a year ago. Excluding certain charges, such as the cost of employee stock options, the company earned $5.10 a share, better than Wall Street's estimate of $4.95 a share.
Google also announced a voluntary one-for-one stock option exchange to retain the 85% of its employees whose options are underwater -- meaning their strike price is higher than Google's trading price.
Google's profit growth has slowed in part because of the dour U.S. economy. It still dominates search advertising and rivals such as Yahoo. Google's stock has dropped 25% during the most recent quarter.
-- Jessica Guynn
Photo Credit: Paul Sakuma / Associated Press
Is Microsoft still searching for a Yahoo deal?
Eclipsed by Microsoft's decision to slash the jobs of up to 5,000 workers amid all the growing economic gloom, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer still wants Yahoo's search business.
Asked about it during a conference call with analysts today, Ballmer said: "I’ve been quite public about the fact that I think there is advantages for consumers, advertisers, Microsoft and Yahoo through a search partnership, and we’d like to do one. I know Carol Bartz well from the Autodesk days and am glad to see her at the helm of Yahoo. And if it’s appropriate, I’m sure we will have the right discussion."
Ballmer met last week with Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock. And he says Microsoft will keep challenging market leader Google in search even as it continues to cede ground.
"We are going to continue to invest in important areas of opportunity for the company," Ballmer said. "And so even while we take out up to 5,000 jobs, we will also be adding a few thousand jobs back in the areas like search where we continue to see incredible opportunity to do good work."
-- Jessica Guynn
Photo: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Credit: Paul Sakuma / Associated Press
-- The global recession catches up with Sony. Bloomberg
-- IBM may be cutting jobs. Wall Street Journal
-- Nokia is having a bad day too. Barrons
-- Yahoo's revolving executive door. BoomTown
-- Watch out Wikipedia, here comes Britannica 2.0. Sydney Morning Herald
-- YouTube may let content partners sell their own ads. TechCrunch
-- T-Mobile uses YouTube to get down and viral. YouTube
-- Now you can watch videos in Gmail chat. Gmail blog
-- Cool new iPhone apps from Stanford students. TechCrunch
-- Y Combinator is going to raise kids and companies on the West Coast only. Y Combinator
-- Ever wanted to know why people stop following you on Twitter? Useqwitter
-- Obama's new-media team enters an old-media White House. Washington Post
-- Web accessibility helps everyone. Do It Myself
-- 15,300 things that tech blogger Robert Scoble likes. Scobleizer
-- And now for your moment of social graph zen. Geek&Poke
-- Jessica Guynn
Photo: Sony CEO Howard Stringer. Credit: Koji Watanabe / Getty Images
 Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer met with Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock in New York on Thursday, two days after Yahoo named Carol Bartz its new CEO, a person familiar with the matter said. A tipster told Valleywag that it was a lunch meeting. On the menu: getting talks going on a possible Web search deal between the companies.
Looking to sock it to search market leader Google, Ballmer had been waiting to approach Yahoo about a search partnership deal until new management was in place. So he jumped when Bartz was hired Tuesday. Ballmer told Bostock that he hoped to move quickly on a deal between the companies, the person said. Microsoft has a proposal already prepared, he added. He declined to be identified because the discussion was supposed to be private.
Yahoo and Microsoft declined to comment.
Bartz, the former Autodesk CEO, told employees at a companywide meeting this week that she needed time to get to know Yahoo's search business but that her gut instinct was not to sell it. Bartz is facing daunting challenges as she takes the reins of Yahoo, which continues to lose ground to Google. Investors are hopeful that Yahoo will strike some kind of search deal that would reduce its costs and boost its profit.
BoomTown reported that the latest Microsoft offer would probably be similar to the past ones it has offered, with a small upfront payment and a long-term, guaranteed revenue that's hefty.
Here we go again.
-- Jessica Guynn
Photo: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Credit: Lee Celano / Microsoft Corp. via Getty Images
 -- Blockbuster strikes a tech deal to offer video downloads and rentals, helping it better compete with Netflix. LAT
-- That didn't take long: Calls begin for Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock's resignation. BoomTown
-- Is new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz on a "glass cliff"? Susan Mernit
-- YouTube mutes copyrighted material. Mashable
-- Life and death unfold on Twitter. Scripting News
-- Meet Comcast's Twitter man, the most famous customer service manager in the world. BusinessWeek
-- Ex-Yahoo executive Dan Rosensweig joins Adobe board. MarketWatch
-- Google start a reseller program for Gmail, Google Docs and other software. Venture Beat
-- Apple finally lets other companies' Web browsers into the App Store. MacRumors
-- And now for your moment of T-shirt zen. Shirt-Fight
-- Jessica Guynn
Photo: Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock. Credit: Yahoo
 UPDATED 2:30 P.M.: It's official: Carol Bartz is Yahoo's new CEO. Read the updated story here.
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Yahoo is close to naming Silicon Valley software veteran Carol A. Bartz as its new CEO, according to people familiar with the matter. The company hopes to announce her hire after the stock market closes today.
Bartz, former chief executive of design-software-maker Autodesk, appears to have beaten a host of internal and outside candidates to land one of Silicon Valley's most high-profile and challenging jobs. If the deal is finalized as expected, she will take over for Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, who will remain on the Sunnyvale, Calif., company's board.
Yahoo and Autodesk declined to comment. The agreement was reported this morning by the Wall Street Journal and News.com.
The hire would cap a two-month search for Yang's replacement. In Bartz, 60, Yahoo has found a seasoned executive from the software industry; from 1992 to 2006, she served as CEO of Autodesk, which makes design programs used by architects and engineers (she is currently executive chairwoman of the San Rafael, Calif., company). Her résumé also includes hard-core tech companies Sun Microsystems and Digital Equipment Corp.
But Yahoo will present different challenges: Its products are used not by design corporations, but by 500 million consumers across the globe. It employs twice as many people as Autodesk and has four times the market valuation. And it has faced heavy criticism from investors for a series of missteps over the past year, including rebuffing Microsoft's acquisition offer, failing to reach a deal to sell its Web search business to the software giant and then having a search-advertising business with Google fall apart under antitrust scrutiny.
Plus, Bartz will have to please the thousands of advertisers who pitch their products and services through Yahoo and the Yahoo employees who are worried about whether the company can remain relevant.
Yahoo shares are trading down 2% near $12 at 11:40 a.m.
-- Jessica Guynn and Chris Gaither
Photo credit: Autodesk
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