Brian Gongol
Microsoft and Yahoo have a love-in
The two failed to reach a merger agreement last year, but now they've agreed to use Microsoft's Bing search engine to handle searches on Yahoo's web services. It wasn't that long ago that Google was an upstart competitor to Yahoo for search services, and later the supplier of its search-engine backend. With Yahoo's switchover to Microsoft's backend, there really isn't much powerful competition in the English-speaking world for search services. Microsoft is trying aggressively with Bing, but it may be an impossible goal for one titanic firm (Microsoft) to overtake another (Google) in an established sector like search engines. Microsoft may, however, find a much better return on its investments if it moves into non-traditional businesses where massive computing power could be a competitive advantage. Fields like pharmaceutical research and energy come to mind.
What that "chicory root extract" found in foods really is
For the curious and health-conscious, the Mayo Clinic offers a great deal of useful information on its website about the nutritional and medicinal value of lots of common foods. Stripped of the hype, for instance, it's good to know that most of the evidence for the value of drinking tea is based on research that has produced mixed results. That doesn't mean it's bad for the body; in fact, if only a handful of the claims turn out to be true, then tea is probably highly advantageous. But it does mean that some thoughtful, qualified people in the medical field would say that much of the hype is just that -- hype.
Company claims it's gotten a patent on podcasting
Historic preservation and environmental protection collide
