Internet searches

American Airlines is suing Yahoo Inc. for trademark infringement, a case similar to one that the nation's largest airline settled this summer against Google Inc.

The airline complains that when computer users enter American's trademark terms such as AAdvantage, the name of its frequent-flier program, in a search they can be directed to competitors who pay Yahoo for the traffic.

American filed its lawsuit last week in U.S. District court in Fort Worth for unspecified damages, legal costs and money to run a "corrective" advertising campaign.

According to a new study from the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Behavior at UCLA, using the Internet and other types of communication technology can boost aging brains.

According to principal investigator Dr. Gary Small, a professor at Semel and holder of UCLA's Parlow-Solomon Chair on Aging, the research is the first to look at the impact of Internet search activity on brain function. The results of the research will be formally published in an upcoming issue of the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

Microsoft said Thursday that it would set up research centers in France, Germany and Britain to improve its Internet search technology, describing the move as a vote of confidence in the European economy and in the company's ability to close the gap with Google.

Steven Ballmer, the Microsoft chief executive, said at a news conference here that the three "centers of excellence," to be based near Paris, in London and in Munich, would employ several hundred people all together.

Google Inc.'s chief executive said Wednesday the Internet search leader won't delay its proposed advertising partnership with rival Yahoo Inc. even if government regulators need more time to assess whether the alliance will diminish competition.

After voluntarily delaying the start of the Yahoo deal three months ago to give antitrust regulators time to review the potential impact, CEO Eric Schmidt said he isn't willing to wait very much beyond an Oct. 11 deadline spelled out in the companies' contract.

Microsoft laid out its "catch Google" strategy at the Search Engines Strategies Conference and Expo in San Jose Tuesday. Appearing as the second keynote, Satya Nadella,
senior vice president for search and advertising, vowed that additional investment and new deep-search techniques will allow the company to gain share over market behemoth Google.

Currently Microsoft gleans less than 10 percent of all Internet searches and less than five percent of Internet ad revenue from searches.

New Search Frontier

I'm a technological optimist, but I have always thought that the people who advocate putting computers in classrooms as a way to transform education were well intentioned but wide of the mark.

What's obscene? Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously said, "I know it when I see it." If Stewart were around today, he could see a lot more of it on the Internet. And in a way, that's what the defense is arguing in the Florida trial of a pornographer.

Stewart's comment, of course, is not the current constitutional standard for obscenity. That is defined by the Miller standard, which defines obscenity as appealing to the prurient interest, being patently offensive, and lacking substantial artistic, political or scientific merit.

Google may be widely admired for its technical wizardry and its quick, accurate search engine, but one of the company's most impressive accomplishments has been its ability to grow as powerful as it is while still remaining, in the minds of most Americans, fundamentally likable.