Google makes video play with YouTube buy | CNET News.com

Google has agreed to purchase online video phenomenon YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock, the companies announced Monday.

The deal, which had been rumored for days, will dramatically improve Google’s video-sharing service with one of the Internet’s hottest properties in YouTube, which allows Net users to upload video clips and share them with the world, for better or worse. YouTube will operate independently, and the companies will work together on building new features for independent users as well as for aspiring directors, they said in a press release. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2006.

“This is one of many investments that Google will be making to put video at the heart of a user’s online experience,” said Google CEO Eric Schmidt on a conference call after the deal was announced. “When we looked at the marketplace and saw what was going on, we saw a clear winner in the social networking side of video, and that’s what drove us to start the conversations with YouTube.”

Google Puts Lid on New Products – Los Angeles Times

Realizing that its myriad services are confusing users, it will focus on refining what it has.

By Chris Gaither, Times Staff Writer
October 6, 2006MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. —

In another sign of Google Inc.’s growth from start-up to corporate behemoth, the company’s top executives said Thursday that they had begun telling engineers to stop launching so many new services and instead focus on making existing ones work together better.

The shift is a major departure from Google’s previous strategy of launching new services rapid-fire and highlights the 8-year-old company’s struggle to stay focused during swift growth.

The other Google search site | News.blog | CNET News.com

October 3, 2006 4:51 PM PDTGoogle has created a search site without any Google branding to test new features. The site, SearchMash, has a simple blue and white interface with a search bar and an option to click on “popular searches.” Once keywords are entered, the results page features links to results running down the left side of the page and the top three image results on the right side.

SearchMash also lets you click on a result and drag and drop it to change the order. Also, when a link is clicked on, the user is offered the option of opening the listings in the current window or a new window, seeing more pages from the Web site or finding similar pages. Additional results are added to the bottom of the original results page by clicking on a “more web pages” link.

With SearchMash, Google “plans to test user interface ideas without Google’s brand somehow skewing the tests,” Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Watch.com wrote in a blog posting on Monday. “It’s pretty slick.”
Posted by Elinor Mills

Google in Talks To Buy YouTube For $1.6 Billion – WSJ.com

Deal Could Put Search Giant
In Top Spot for Online Video;
A Front Door for Web Visits
By KEVIN J. DELANEY
October 7, 2006; Page A1The latest prize in the great Internet land grab, online-video company YouTube Inc., could soon be snapped up by Google Inc.
[Chad Hurley]

Web-search giant Google is in talks to acquire YouTube for roughly $1.6 billion, a person familiar with the matter says. An acquisition of the closely held company would catapult Google to the lead spot in online video at a moment when consumers are rapidly increasing the amount of time they spend viewing video clips online, and Internet video advertising is booming.

The discussions between Google and YouTube are still at a sensitive stage and could break off, says the person familiar with the matter. Other technology, media and entertainment companies have expressed interest in taking stakes in YouTube this year, according to people familiar with the matter. Google rival Yahoo Inc. earlier this week expressed interest in holding acquisition talks with the video start-up, these people say. YouTube also turned down a lower proposed value from Google earlier this week, before commencing discussions about the possible $1.6 billion deal.

Survey: Telecommuting now more the rule, not the exception

October 05, 2006 (Computerworld) — Most companies now offer workers the option to work from home, satellite offices and other locations, according to a survey conducted by Philadelphia-based Yoh Services LLC, a provider of talent and outsourcing services.The survey also found that most human resources managers expect the use of telecommuting to increase over the next two years.

“We learned that companies need to build a product that says, ‘if you come and work for us, here’s what you’re going to have: a casual work environment, a flexible schedule’ — whatever that may be,” said Jim Lanzalotto, vice president of strategy and marketing at Yoh. “Companies are realizing that in order to attract the best people to come work for their companies, they need to create an environment that’s conducive to do that.”

Study: You can lower the odds of being outsourced – Computerworld

Based on interviews with 96 SIM members, all of them IT managers at firms ranging from small companies to multinational enterprises, the study found that business skills accounted for five of the 10 attributes organizations want from their in-house staffers over the next three years. The other five most-requested skills by CIOs include a mix of project management and technical skills, though the latter are still client-facing

Google Finance – Google Finance is an early beta product that offers a broad range of
information about North American stocks, mutual funds and public and
private companies along with charts, news and fundamental financial
data.

H-1B visa cap increase sought in immigration bill – Computerworld

MARCH 15, 2006 (COMPUTERWORLD) – A wide-ranging immigration-reform bill now being debated by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee would, if passed and signed into law, increase the H-1B visa cap from 65,000 to 115,000 and ease the permanent residency process for some foreign nationals with advanced degrees.

The 300-page bill, called the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006, affects many aspects of immigration policy and security. And because the bill is so comprehensive and controversial, according to people on both sides of the issue, its fate doesn’t rest solely on the H-1B visa issue. The bill could reach the Senate for a vote by the end of the month.