After China and the US, India is the third largest internet market in the world. But India has philosophically aligned itself more with China in pursuing a policy of censorship toward publication of content deemed “offensive” or “objectionable” by individuals, groups or the government. A recently enacted law seeks to remove all such content from the internet in India. Facebook, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft were sued under the law and had been arguing in Indian court that it was all but impossible for them to comply as a practical matter. The law makes online publishers potentially li [...]

Related Topics: Facebook | Google: Legal | Google: Outside US | Legal: Censorship | Microsoft: Outside US | Yahoo: Legal | Yahoo: Outside US

Bing is reportedly now out of betaphase in Deutschland. According to Microsoft, Bing has 10 million users or 20 percent of active internet users in Germany: Mittlerweile benutzen fast 10 Millionen Nutzer in Deutschland regelmäßig Bing, das sind 20 Prozent der aktiven Internetnutzer hierzulande. According to several third-party sources, Bing's market share is smaller than the 20 percent figure cited above. For example, the following is StatCounter's search engine data for Germany: Source: StatCounter NetMarketshare generally agrees, showing Bing's PC search share at just ove [...]

Related Topics: Google: Outside US | Microsoft: adCenter | Microsoft: Outside US | Microsoft: Partnerships | Stats: Popularity | Stats: Size | Yahoo: Outside US | Yahoo: Partnerships | Yahoo: Search Ads

China's dominant search engine Baidu is trying to expand its reach beyond Chinese-language speakers. Reuters is reporting that Baidu and Microsoft have done a deal that will offer Bing powered English-language results for the Chinese search engine. It's not clear whether this is limited to China or will be used in other markets where English is spoken. We've asked Microsoft for some additional color and perspective. Baidu controls roughly 80 percent of the search market in China, according to several sources. Google is second with approximately 19 percent. A Bloomberg report suggests [...]

Related Topics: Baidu | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Outside US | Microsoft: Partnerships | Top News

Well, that didn't take long. Just days after announcing plans to operate its Streetside map/photo service in Germany, Microsoft is already dealing with its first governmental objection. Thomas Kranig, head of the Bavarian State Office for Data Protection, has issued a statement (in German; here's a Google translation to English) giving objections to Bing's plans for letting residents opt-out of Streetside photography. In short, Kranig says Bing should allow residents to opt-out before any photographs are published online. Bing's plan is to publish the photographs first and then allow re [...]

Related Topics: Microsoft: Bing Streetside | Microsoft: Outside US

Readers outside the US may want to know that the Yahoo-Bing search transition is now complete in three more countries. According to this Yahoo blog post, Bing is now powering the Yahoo back-end for organic search in: Australia Brazil Mexico Bing started powering Yahoo's organic results in the US and Canada last August. [...]

Related Topics: Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Outside US | Microsoft: Partnerships | Yahoo: Partnerships | Yahoo: Search