Google cast as Internet bully

Search King has taken out a lawsuit against Google, alleging that the company is penalising competitors. The search engine optimisation company claims that Google 'arbitrarily' reduced the ranking for Search King and its related sites, thereby reducing the value of the company and the service it provided to advertisers. The lawsuit brought by the president of Search King alleges that Google 'arbitrarily and purposefully devalued his companies' and his customers' Web sites, causing his business to suffer financially'. ...more

Microsoft gets double-click patent

Microsoft has been granted a patent for one of computer user's most basic tools, the double-click. Patent number 6,727,830 - Time based hardware button for application launch - covers various mouse click sequences that Microsoft claims to have invented. The patent is being challenged by the Public Patent Foundation and will not have gone unnoticed at Apple, whose first Macintosh pioneered the use of a mouse. ...more

ASA approves T-Mobile complaint over streetmap ad

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has sided with T-Mobile against a recent O2 television advert promoting the use of streetmap.co.uk with a mobile. ...more

IBM and Microsoft slug it out over 'People Ready' campaign

Technology giants IBM and Microsoft embarked on a slanging match last week as each accused the other of being 'out of touch' with what end users want. The occasion was the launch of a new advertising onslaught by Microsoft based around the concept of applications being 'People Ready'. Over the coming year, Microsoft says it plans to spend a whopping $500 million promoting the idea of empowering end users with the raft of new product offerings, including the flagship Windows Vista operating system, the 2007 Microsoft Office system, Windows Mobile software and the next version of Microsoft Exchange Server. ...more

Toughbooks just get tougher

Panasonic has added the CF-28 to its Toughbook range, sporting a 600Mhz mobile PIII Speedstep chip. As the toughest in the Toughbook range, its redesigned chassis adds extra resistance to heat, water and dust with a newly developed damper and stainless steel case for the 20Gb hard drive, sealed ports and seamless silicon rubber round the cabinet edge. The unit can be dropped from a height of three feet without damage, even when dropped on its corner, and complies to the IP45 water and dust-proofing standards. ...more