Bing eclipses Yahoo in US search
Microsoft has finally reached a long-sought and expensive goal - its Bing search engine now ranks second behind Google in the Internet's most lucrative market, according to the Associated Press.
Bing and Microsoft's other Web sites fielded 2.75 billion search requests in the US during December, catapulting in front of Yahoo for the first time in the jockeying for runner up to Google, according to statistics released yesterday by comScore.
Bing's December volume translated into a 15.1% share of the US search traffic, comScore said. Yahoo processed 2.65 billion search requests, representing 14.5% of the US market.
Apple buys Israeli semiconductor company
Technology giant Apple confirmed yesterday that it has acquired Israeli semiconductor company Anobit technologies for $390 million, providing it with a significant technological boost in the mobile devices market, reports RTTNews.com.
Apple uses flash memories in most of its products, including cameras and music players, to iPads, iPhones, iPods and MacBook Airs.
Pituach, Israel-based Anobit is a fabless semiconductor company, and is the developer of a data signal processing technology which enhances flash memories to provide storage solutions.
Dutch court orders Pirate Bay blockade
A Dutch court ruled yesterday that two Dutch Internet service providers must block their customers from accessing controversial file-sharing Web site Pirate Bay, notes The Wall Street Journal.
The ruling affects Dutch cable network company Ziggo and Internet service provider XS4ALL. According to the ruling, both companies have 10 days to block access to Pirate Bay or will face fines of EUR10 000 a day.
The court said 30% of Ziggo customers and 4.5% of XS4ALL customers have exchanged music, movies and games using Pirate Bay, violating copyright.
Virgin boosts UK broadband speeds
Virgin Media customers on a range of broadband packages are to receive a free upgrade boosting speeds to as high as 120Mbps, as the UK's Internet infrastructure continues to evolve, notes V3.co.uk.
The upgrades will begin from February 2012 and are expected to be completed by mid-2013.
They will be provided to around four million customers on packages starting from 10Mbps to 100Mbps.
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