Los Angeles Times

SAN FRANCISCO Google, which has faltered in its attempts to break into the booming social-networking business, is making another bid to counter the growing influence of Silicon Valley rival Facebook and San Francisco upstart Twitter with new products that make it easier to share with friends on its Internet e-mail service Gmail.

The Internet giant held a news conference at its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters Tuesday to show off “Buzz,” which incorporates social-media tools such as photo and video sharing and status updates in Gmail.

Buzz, which launched Tuesday, will also be accessible on mobile phones. And there eventually will be a version of Buzz for businesses.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin, vice president of product management Bradley Horowitz, vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra and product manager Todd Jackson were on hand to show it off. The tagline for Google Buzz is “a Google approach to sharing.”

Buzz is perhaps Google’s boldest effort yet to get social. It is taking on Facebook and Twitter as well as other hot startups such as Foursquare (and borrowing from Gmail creator and ex-Googler Paul Buchheit’s FriendFeed, which was absorbed by Facebook).

The new service has five features, Jackson said.

• You will automatically follow the people you e-mail and chat with on a regular basis.

• You will be able to share content from around the Web, including YouTube videos, Flickr photos, site links and other materials.

• You will be able to share your thoughts in a public way and in a private way.

• You will get social updates in your inbox.

• And Google will help you find only the stuff that matters by recommending popular content.

The mobile version of Buzz can figure out where you are and show you nearby buzz posts.

“Google has long said their goal is to organize the world’s information. With the introduction of Buzz, you can see the company recognizes how social has become a ‘Google scale’ problem that needs improved discovery and real relevancy,” said technology blogger Louis Gray.

“People are sharing their content in a wide variety of social sites online, and Buzz is the first product from Google that looks to harness this data in one place and provide a platform for discussion,” Gray said.

Last month, Google introduced a new feature that displays search results related to users’ friends and other members of their social networks.

Google has been trying for years to gain a foothold in social networking as its smaller, more nimble competitors steal some of its thunder. Orkut, its social-networking service, gained a mass following in Brazil and nowhere else.

Attempts to buy its way into the arena also failed, when Google acquired, then ultimately scrapped, the services offered by Twitter competitor Jaiku and Foursquare predecessor Dodgeball.

Analysts remain skeptical that this effort will catapult Google into the social stratosphere. Meanwhile, Facebook has become such a central part of many people’s lives that it’s replacing e-mail.

That’s exactly what Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is looking to do: turn his site into the starting point and focal point of the Internet experience.

Facebook’s strategy of connecting the world’s people, versus Google’s strategy of organizing the world’s information, seems to be resonating. So now Google says it’s going to organize the world’s social information.

The Silicon Valley showdown is heating up. Google is still the Web’s No. 1 most-visited site, with 173 million U.S. visitors in December, according to ComScore Media Metrix.

But Facebook is gaining. It was the fourth-most visited site in December, with 111.8 million visitors.

“Google has tried to succeed with social products that just haven’t caught on. There’s no guarantee Google Buzz will be any different,” search blogger Danny Sullivan wrote in a blog post.

Copyright © The Seattle Times Company

An effort to annex the neighborhoods of Finn Hill, Kingsgate and Juanita into the city of Kirkland failed to reach the required 60 percent. The Kirkland City Council is considering whether to take a vote to still annex the unincorporated neighborhoods into the city.

By Nicole Tsong

Seattle Times Eastside reporter

Map data ©2009 Google – Terms of UseSee more mapped stories
A vote by three unincorporated neighborhoods to join the city of Kirkland failed by just 0.06 percent.

According to the final tally released by King County Elections today, 59.94 percent of residents of Finn Hill, Kingsgate and Juanita voted to annex into the city of Kirkland but were still short of the required 60 percent.

However, because more than 50 percent of the voters said yes to annexation, the Kirkland City Council still can vote to approve annexation, officials said.

The council likely will start discussing annexation at a budget meeting next week and consider whether a vote should take place this year or in January, when a new council is seated, said Mayor Jim Lauinger, who did not run for re-election.

The annexation vote included approval of a bond measure intended to spread the city’s current debt on parks and fire services among the annexed residents, but according to state law redistributing the debt requires voters’ approval, officials said.

The annexation would have added 33,000 residents from unincorporated King County into the city, increasing the current population to nearly 83,000. More than 10,000 residents cast votes on the proposed annexation, with 6,291 voting “yes” and 4,205 voting “no.”

There is no automatic recount for ballot measures, said an election spokeswoman, but a recount can be requested within three days of certification by a group of five registered voters.

Scott Brady, who ran a Web site opposing annexation, said he was happy with the results and felt the facts about Kirkland’s current budget problems appealed to voters.

But with the City Council considering voting on annexation, Brady and other organizers are discussing their next step, he said.

“We’ll be there to remind the City Council that Kirkland is penniless and cutting vital services even without the cost of annexation, and that they cannot provide the service level they have advertised throughout the process,” he said.

Toby Nixon, who had been helping lead the pro-annexation effort, along with other organizers, already has been talking to council members about voting to annex the neighborhoods. He said he felt there was a good chance the council will approve it.

“The annexation itself is an overwhelmingly positive vote,” he said. “A 59.94 percent vote is a landslide if you’re talking about a vote on the annexation itself.”

Nicole Tsong: 206-464-2150 or ntsong@seattletimes.com

Microsoft has been in early discussions about a pact to pay News Corp. to remove links to its news content from Google’s search engine and display them exclusively on Microsoft’s Bing. If such an arrangement came to pass, it would be a watershed moment in the history of the Internet, and set off a fierce debate over the future of content online.

By TIM ARANGO and ASHLEE VANCE

The New York Times

KEVIN P. CASEY / AP

Steve Ballmer

Rupert Murdoch
Related

PaidContent.org | MSNBC.com Taking Over @BreakingNews Twitter Feed
Microsoft Pri0 blog
This is not how business has been done on the World Wide Web.

Microsoft has been in early discussions with News Corp., the media conglomerate controlled by Rupert Murdoch, about a pact to pay News Corp. to remove links to its news content from Google’s search engine and display them exclusively on Microsoft’s Bing, according to a person briefed on the matter who spoke anonymously because of the confidential negotiations.

If such an arrangement came to pass, it would be a watershed moment in the history of the Internet, and set off a fierce debate over the future of content online.

The Web’s explosive growth has been driven, in part, by the open playing field it represents for consumers and businesses.

These discussions could encourage major technology and media companies to start picking sides — essentially applying the cable-TV model to the Web.

A deal on a large scale would create a new set of barriers for users to navigate and would represent an enormous risk for News Corp. or any news site.

More than 65 percent of all search inquiries are made on Google, and removing links from there would lead to a big drop in traffic. Bing handles 9.9 percent of searches, according to comScore.

Steve Ballmer, the chief executive of Redmond-based Microsoft, said in a recent interview that Google handled about six times as many search queries as Microsoft, and that Google’s search ads generated more revenue per click.

But Microsoft executives have been clear about their intentions to pursue bold measures to disrupt Google’s dominant position in the search market.

A broad tie-up with media companies would represent Microsoft’s most drastic measure to date — one in which it would be running a high-stakes experiment against Google, which also has deep pockets.

The development, first reported by The Financial Times, comes as many content providers, including newspapers and other news-media companies, are re-evaluating their Web strategy.

The expected riches from online advertising have not materialized, and many outlets are considering charging for access to their online content, as some sites, including The Wall Street Journal, owned by News Corp., already do.

Negotiating fees from search engines is a significant new wrinkle in online strategy, at least raising the hope that such a deal may finally establish a precedent that sets a value for online news beyond advertising revenue or subscriptions. Murdoch has been especially vocal about trying to get paid for his company’s news content online. News Corp. owns many newspapers, including the New York Post, The Times of London and The Sun in Britain.

In a recent interview with Sky News Australia, Murdoch said that Google and other online entities “steal our stories.”

As for the argument that blocking Google would effectively diminish the online audience for his newspapers, he said, “We’d rather have fewer people coming to our Web sites, but paying.”

A spokeswoman for Microsoft said the company declined to comment on “rumors and speculation.” A News Corp. spokeswoman declined to comment.

Thus far, Microsoft has tried to drum up interest in its search service Bing, introduced in May, by presenting users with a more colorful interface and, where it can, more detailed results.

In addition, the company signed a deal this year to take over the technology infrastructure behind Yahoo’s search service in exchange for a partnership tied to search ads.

“The most important thing is to have a point of view, try to be unique, try to add value and try to make money,” Ballmer said.

Danny Sullivan, the editor of Search Engine Land, a Web site that tracks the online search industry, argued that Microsoft would need to bring a number of publications into its fold to represent a real threat to Google.

Without such deals in place, he viewed the rumblings about a possible link between Microsoft and the News Corp. as little more than a negotiating ploy.

“My reaction is that this is probably more of Murdoch trying to put pressure on Google for a deal than anything else,” Sullivan said.

Microsoft has also shown a willingness to tap its vast cash reserves and pay people who are willing to use its search service in favor of Google’s. The company, for example, offers discounts on certain products that are located through a Bing search and has similar discount arrangements in place with such online stores as eBay.

Bing’s start was the latest in a number of attempts by Microsoft to revitalize its search business.

While Bing has helped Microsoft raise its market share, the gains have yet to translate into a meaningful increase in search revenue, said Brendan Barnicle, a software analyst with Pacific Crest Securities.

It remains difficult to tell how much money Microsoft could make by pulling more people toward Bing through content deals with publishers. Google does pay publishers for content, but in limited ways. For example, it has a deal with The Associated Press to carry the full text of its articles.

It is technologically simple for a publisher to keep a search engine from linking to a site’s pages. The publisher must simply post a special file on the site with instructions that can be read by the “crawlers” sent out by such companies as Microsoft and Google to handle indexing. For example, it might tell Bing to index certain pages or tell Google to stay away.