NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 3 April
03-04-2009
by Deirdre McArdle
Electric car strategy revs up | Google in talks to buy Twitter: report
The Government has signed an agreement with car manufacturer Renault-Nissan and the ESB, which it claims will see electric cars on Irish roads within two years. Under the terms of the agreement, Renault-Nissan will commit to providing electric cars for sale in Ireland by 2011, and we will be one of the first countries in the world to be supplied with both Renault and Nissan electric cars. For its part ESB will provide the infrastructure necessary to support the use of electric vehicles. The arrangement doesn't mean the Government can't negotiate with other car manufacturers; as Energy Minister Eamon Ryan said back in November, "Ireland is open for business with electric cars". The Government's aim is to have 10 percent of the transport fleet fully electric by 2020. Based on current numbers, this equates to approximately 230,000 vehicles. "This collaboration will provide the world with a model for how electric vehicles can be achieved globally. We will continue to press ahead," said Minister Ryan.
As it strides ever onwards towards world domination, the latest rumour suggests that Google is in talks to acquire micro-blogging phenomenon Twitter. According to a Tech Crunch report by Michael Arrington, talks between the pair have been confirmed, although neither Google nor Twitter have given statements. Comments on the rumours have thrown up a mixed reaction from observers, with some saying the move makes a lot of sense for Google and Twitter, while others believe Twitter should continue to go it alone for a while longer. In addition, Arrington cites sources who claim the pair are also talking about working together on a Google "real time search engine". Time will tell if these talks go any further.
In more news of Google, the internet giant's Street View car ran into some trouble in Broughton in Milton Keynes when angry residents reportedly formed a human chain to stop the vehicle coming in to the village. Google's Street View mapping project creates 360-degree views of streets using footage taken by a camera, which has been mounted on a car. According to the BBC, police were called to the scene after Broughton residents staged the protest, accusing Google of invading their privacy. For its part, Google said it observed UK law and only filmed from public areas. It also said it had consulted various police forces and provided residents with a way to have their home removed from the service, reports the BBC.
First rumoured two weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal reports that IBM could be close to finalising a deal to acquire Sun Microsystems. Big Blue is reportedly offering USD9.55 per share for Sun, which would value the tech giant at around the USD7 billion mark. Keen to avoid any negative repercussions should the deal not get the regulatory go-ahead (think back to the hammering Yahoo's shares took when Google pulled out of the pair's advertising deal), Sun is negotiating hard for IBM to agree to complete the deal despite any potential regulatory scrutiny it'll face. A merger between IBM and Sun would see the pair control a major share of the tape storage market, and nearly two thirds of the high-end Unix server market.
As it marks its third anniversary, the dot-eu domain continues to prove a popular top level domain, clocking up over 3 million registrations since its launch. The number of dot-eu domains increased by 2 percent during the first quarter of 2009, and it is now the fifth most popular country code top-level domain worldwide. Most dot-eu domains have been registered in EU countries with the largest populations and highest internet take up as a proportion of population. Germany leads with 30 percent, followed by the Netherlands (14 percent), the UK (12 percent), France (8 percent) and Poland (6 percent).
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 