Well, we can all sleep a little easier now that Microsoft and Yahoo have finally announced details of the search deal they have worked on for months (and that has kept some of us on the edge, as tidbits of the story had an unsavory habit of breaking on weekends). All of the details, and then some, can be found by following the links in this week’s top entry. Otherwise, with the Black Hat conference under way, there was a load of security news, with DefCon to follow this weekend (no rest for the weary).

1. Microsoft and Yahoo sign search deal, take on Google, CEOs: Devil was in details of Yahoo, Microsoft search tie-up and Microsoft-Yahoo deal: Why you stand to lose: After tracking this would-be news for about a year, all we feel is relief that it was finally announced. Now we can shift attention to whether Microsoft and Yahoo’s big search deal, once approved by regulators, will work out for them and for users.

2. Clampi Trojan revealed as financial-plundering botnet monster: The news of a massive botnet associated with more than 45,000 Web sites and capable of stealing financial data is one of those instances that makes us wish that superheroes were real and that we could sic Batman on the bad guys and just end this nonsense once and for all.

3. Sensitive data compromised by SSL encryption flaws: Flaws in the software that uses SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption could compromise sensitive personal data, security researchers said. The problem apparently is in the way SSL has been implemented into many browsers and also in the X.509 public key infrastructure system. (And there is more unsettling security news ahead in numbers five and eight.)

4. Apple: Jailbreaking could knock out transmission towers and EFF: Apple’s claim that jailbroken iPhones can crash cell towers a ‘hill of beans’: There’s nothing quite like a public spate to spice up the headlines. Apple told the U.S. Copyright Office as part of a review of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that unauthorized modification of the iPhone OS — so-called “jailbreaking” — could cause major network disruptions, including the possibility of crashing transmission towers. The claim was made in response to a request by the Electronic Frontier Foundation that such modifications do not violate the DMCA and should be permitted. So, the EFF responded to Apple by saying, more or less, “get real!”

5. Extra ‘&’ in Microsoft development code gave hackers IE exploit: “The bug is simply a typo,” said Michael Howard, a principal security program manager at Microsoft, to explain how an extra “&” in development code has enabled hackers to exploit Internet Explorer for weeks.

6. IBM to buy BI software partner: IBM plans to buy SPSS, the analytics software specialist, for US$1.2 billion. The companies had announced just last month that IBM will embed SPSS technology into its business intelligence and performance management tools.

7. Intel rushed to create Atom chip, executive said: Intel was behind the competition in developing chips for mobile devices and so had to speed up its process, which led to development of the successful Atom chip, an Intel executive revealed.

8. iPhone SMS attack to be unleashed at Black Hat: iPhone hacker Charlie Miller showed at the Black Hat conference how to take over one of the smartphones using a series of malicious SMS (short messaging system) messages exploiting an unpatched bug. Although more work would have to be done for a hacker to do anything seriously bad using the flaw, such things seem always to just be a matter of time.

9. Facebook etiquette: 10 rules for better socializing: Although etiquette rules for social networking, e-mail and other aspects of Web life would seem to be, more or less, the same as the manners employed apart from cyberspace, those of us who have been assaulted on our Facebook pages by revelations regarding the type of deodorant a “friend” fancies have come to realize that some lessons are called for.

10. Microsoft details how to upgrade between Windows 7 SKUs: Microsoft’s deal with Yahoo wasn’t the only news from the software company this week. Microsoft also released details on how people can upgrade to a different version of Windows 7. Users can purchase a package with an upgrade key, which gives them the ability to trade up to the next version of the OS. Upgrading will cost $79.99, $89.99 or $139.99 depending on what version a user selects.

Yahoo! and Microsoft announced an agreement that will improve the Web search experience for users and advertisers, and deliver sustained innovation to the industry. In simple terms, Microsoft will now power Yahoo! search while Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers.

For Web users and advertisers, this deal will accelerate the pace and breadth of innovation by combining both companies’ complementary strengths and search platforms into a market competitor with the scale to fuel sustained development in search and search advertising. Users will find what they care about faster and with more personal relevance. Microsoft’s competitive search platforms will lead to more value for advertisers, better results for Web publishers, and increased innovation and efficiency across the Internet.

Carol Bartz, Yahoo! CEO

Under this agreement, Yahoo! will focus on its core business of providing consumers with great experiences with the world’s favorite online destinations and Web products.

“This agreement comes with boatloads of value for Yahoo!, our users, and the industry. And I believe it establishes the foundation for a new era of Internet innovation and development,” said Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz. “Users will continue to experience search as a vital part of their Yahoo! experiences and will enjoy increased innovation thanks to the scale and resources this deal provides. Advertisers will also benefit from scale and enjoy greater ease of use and efficiencies working with a single platform and sales team for premium advertisers. Finally, this deal will help us increase our investments in priority areas in winning audience properties, display advertising capabilities and mobile experiences.”

Providing a viable alternative to advertisers, this deal will combine Yahoo! and Microsoft search marketplaces so that advertisers no longer have to rely on one company that dominates more than 70% of all search. With the addition of Yahoo!’s search volume, Microsoft will achieve the size and scale required to unleash competition and innovation in the market, for consumers as well as advertisers.

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said the agreement will provide Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, the scale necessary to more effectively compete, attracting more users and advertisers, which in turn will lead to more relevant ads and search results.

“Through this agreement with Yahoo!, we will create more innovation in search, better value for advertisers, and real consumer choice in a market currently dominated by a single company,” said Ballmer. “Success in search requires both innovation and scale. With our new Bing search platform, we’ve created breakthrough innovation and features. This agreement with Yahoo! will provide the scale we need to deliver even more rapid advances in relevancy and usefulness. Microsoft and Yahoo! know there’s so much more that search could be. This agreement gives us the scale and resources to create the future of search.”

“This deal fits the long-term strategic direction of Yahoo! to remain the world’s leading online media company and Carol Bartz has the full and unanimous support of the Yahoo! Board behind this deal,” said Roy Bostock, chairman, Yahoo! Inc. “This is a significant opportunity for us. Microsoft is an industry innovator in search, and it is a great opportunity for us to focus our investments in other areas critical to our future.”

The key terms of the agreement are as follows:

• The term of the agreement is 10 years;
• Microsoft will acquire an exclusive 10-year license to Yahoo!’s core search technologies, and Microsoft will have the ability to integrate Yahoo! search technologies into its existing Web search platforms;
• Microsoft’s Bing will be the exclusive algorithmic search and paid search platform for Yahoo! sites. Yahoo! will continue to use its technology and data in other areas of its business such as enhancing display advertising technology.
• Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers. Self-serve advertising for both companies will be fulfilled by Microsoft’s AdCenter platform, and prices for all search ads will continue to be set by AdCenter’s automated auction process.
• Each company will maintain its own separate display advertising business and sales force.
• Yahoo! will innovate and “own” the user experience on Yahoo! properties, including the user experience for search, even though it will be powered by Microsoft technology.
• Microsoft will compensate Yahoo! through a revenue sharing agreement on traffic generated on Yahoo!’s network of both owned and operated (O&O) and affiliate sites.
  • Microsoft will pay traffic acquisition costs (TAC) to Yahoo! at an initial rate of 88% of search revenue generated on Yahoo!’s O&O sites during the first five years of the agreement.
  • Yahoo! will continue to syndicate its existing search affiliate partnerships.
• Microsoft will guarantee Yahoo!’s O&O revenue per search (RPS) in each country for the first 18 months following initial implementation in that country.
• At full implementation (expected to occur within 24 months following regulatory approval), Yahoo! estimates, based on current levels of revenue and current operating expenses, that this agreement will provide a benefit to annual GAAP operating income of approximately $500 million and capital expenditure savings of approximately $200 million. Yahoo! also estimates that this agreement will provide a benefit to annual operating cash flow of approximately $275 million.
• The agreement protects consumer privacy by limiting the data shared between the companies to the minimum necessary to operate and improve the combined search platform, and restricts the use of search data shared between the companies. The agreement maintains the industry-leading privacy practices that each company follows today.

The agreement does not cover each company’s Web properties and products, email, instant messaging, display advertising, or any other aspect of the companies’ businesses. In those areas, the companies will continue to compete vigorously.

The transaction will be subject to regulatory review. The agreement entered into today anticipates that the parties will enter into more detailed definitive agreements prior to closing. Microsoft and Yahoo! expect the agreement to be closely reviewed by the industry and government regulators, and welcome questions. The companies are hopeful that closing can occur in early 2010.

The companies have established a Web site at choicevalueinnovation.com to provide consumers, advertisers and publishers with additional information about the benefits of the agreement.

Yahoo! has announced at CommunicAsia 2009 that the award-winning Yahoo! Mobile experience is now available in nine additional countries and 100 more devices worldwide. Providing an open and highly-personalized starting point to the Internet on both the mobile Web and as an Apple iPhone app, Yahoo! Mobile enables consumers to discover, stay connected and stay informed through their mobile devices. Yahoo! Mobile is now available in 17 countries across Europe, Asia and the Americas, including today’s expansion into Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Spain and Italy.

Yahoo! Mobile for the Web is now available across more than 400 devices with HTML-enabled moble browsers by visiting http://m.yahoo.com, while the Yahoo! Mobile iPhone app is available in the Apple iPhone App Store.

“We’re thrilled with the consumer adoption of Yahoo! as a starting point to the Internet experience on mobile devices,” said David Ko, senior VP, Yahoo! Mobile. “With products like Yahoo! Mobile, we’re invigorating the mobile industry and consumer demand for compelling Internet services across a variety of mobile platforms. We’re delivering engaging and customizable user experience for consumers around the globe, ultimately putting them in control of their mobile lives.”

Yahoo! Mobile- The starting point on mobile devices
With feature-rich design and interactivity that maximizes the capabilities of today’s mobile devices, Yahoo! Mobile offers an open environment where consumers can bring together their favorite content and services from across the Internet. Consumers can now make their Internet experience on mobile personally relevant through the ability to:

• Discover via results from Yahoo!’s award-winning mobile search and editor-selected content;
• Stay Connected through access to e-mail and social networking accounts from the most popular Web providers, as well as instant messaging, address book and calendar tools;
• Stay Informed by bringing together favorite content- Web sites, sports news, news sources, local content, RSS feeds, weather, stocks, horoscopes and more- into a single location.

Yahoo! Mobile for Web and the Yahoo! Mobile iPhone app first debuted across eight countries including the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, France, India, Indonesia and the Philippines in April this year. Additional localized versions are expected to launch over the next several months.

CommunicAsia2009 and BroadcastAsia2009 are expected to feature about 2000 exhibiting companies from 65 countries and regions from across the globe, demonstrating the strong demand by companies to expand their footprint in Asia’s emerging markets and the importance of the annual exhibitions as networking and sourcing platforms for the global infocomm and media industries. The shows are set to return from 16-19 June 2009 at the Singapore Expo.

The infocomm industry’s strength is still evident despite the unpredictable conditions in the global economy. Infocomm sectors in many Asian countries are out-performing the rest of the global economy, representing significant opportunities here.

“The global gloom has accentuated the gleaming potential in Asia and increased the urgency in which international companies are moving into the continent,” said Victor Wong, project director at show organizer Singapore Exhibition Services. “CommunicAsia and BroadcastAsia’s established reputation and repeated ability to attract trade professionals from across the Asia Pacific region makes the shows the first choice for exhibiting companies, especially in the current environment of tighter budgets.” Visitors can look forward to exciting displays from market leaders like Blackberry, Google, Harris, Huawei, LG, Navteq, Samsung, Yahoo! and ZTE.

As Web 2.0 technlogies take over the enterprise sector across Asia this year in the goal to streamline customer service and spending, this same development will be mirrored in the Philippines. IDC expects worldwide interoperability for WiMAX in the Philippines to get back into the game in 2009. WiMAX and other fixed wireless subscriptions in the Philippines will skyrocket to $1 billion by 2013, seizing about 5% of the market from the current 1%. A recent Market Research report showed that PLDT‘s wireless broadband service revenues in the first half of 2008 rose by 50% year-on-year.

AS companies are turning to cutting edge technologies to meet the challenges posed by today’s tough economic climate, CommunicAsia2009 will focuse on the latest hot technologies for applications, solutions and hardware. These key techniques, which are already starting to have a huge impact on the way we live, work  and play, include IPTV, mobile entertainment, WiMAX, navigation and LBS, satellite, Femtocell, iGov, wireless technologies, Green IT and mobile Internet.

In response to the buzzing media industry development in Asia, BroadcastAsia2009 will again feature key technologies that draw huge interest and demand from the market. These include broadcast-to-handheld / mobile TV, digital media asset management, high-definition technology, PITV, mobile broadcasting and professional audio technology. Featured for the first time at BroadcastAsia2009 is digital signage which reflects the growing global demands of the retail, hospitality and entertainment industries for a dynamic medium to captivate their audiences. A form of electronic display that is installed in public spaces, digital signage is set to replace the conventional printed posters with state-of-the-art digital panels.

CommunicAsia, BroadcastAsia, CG Overdrive, as well as various inter-government meetings, are part of the Infocomm Media Business Exchange (imbX). It brings together business leaders, companies and industry professionals to showcase their latest innovations, network, exchange ideas and tap new markets.