IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 24 February
24-02-2010
by Sylvia Leatham
Ex-Dell workers protest over EU fund | Yahoo plans Twitter tie-in
The Irish Times says that foreign direct investment (FDI) in Ireland fell sharply in 2009, with job creation by foreign multinationals dropping 42 percent. According to the National Irish Bank/FDI Intelligence Inward Investment Performance Monitor, the global FDI market was weak, with the number of new jobs created falling 25 percent compared to 2008. In Europe, new jobs declined by about one-third, while Ireland was particularly hard hit, with jobs created falling from 12,900 to 7,500. However, the report said Ireland attracted a large share of global FDI given its small size.
The Irish Examiner reports that up to 200 former Dell workers picketed an office scheduled to distribute EU funding for retraining programmes on Tuesday. Denis Ryan, chairman of the Dell Redundant Workers' Association, said many were frustrated at the lack of progress in accessing the fund. He also said there are concerns that people may lose social welfare entitlements if they choose to do a course in a privately run college rather than seek educational courses through a state agency.
The paper also says that Limerick Gardai have begun using a high-tech radio system that will prevent criminals monitoring their movements with radio scanners. The new Tetra radio handset is secure and cannot be intercepted by scanners used by criminals. Tetra also enables a garda under attack to press a red alert button for immediate assistance. The handset can also be used as a mobile phone. The system is already up and running in Dublin. Limerick is the first Garda division outside the capital to use the service.
The Financial Times says that Yahoo is planning a deep integration with Twitter. The micro-blogging site said it would allow Yahoo users to broadcast tweets and view others from within Yahoo webpages. It said it plans to display Twitter content on its popular webpages that focus on news, sports, entertainment and finance. The hook-up should be completed by December. The financial terms of the tie-up were not disclosed, but analysts believe Yahoo is paying for Twitter's user-generated content. Yahoo has also started incorporating tweets into its real-time search results.
The paper also says that Cisco Systems is developing an ultra-high-speed broadband system in partnership with a number of US service providers, according to sources. The move comes just weeks after Google said it would build an ultra-high-speed fibre-optic system. Cisco declined to comment on its plans.
The same paper says that almost 7,000 authors have asked to be excluded from the digital books agreement that Google reached with the publishing industry, including well-known writers such as Zadie Smith and Phillip Pullman. However, observers said the objections are likely to have little impact on Google's ambition to create the most comprehensive online repository of printed works. The deal still requires approval by a US judge, who held a hearing on the case last week in the last step before issuing his ruling.
In other news of Google, the Wall Street Journal says that European antitrust authorities have opened a preliminary inquiry into complaints about the company's tactics made by three internet companies. The inquiry appears to focus largely on complaints that Google unfairly ranks the sites of the internet firms, in effect lowering their rank in Google search results. Google denied violating European law or taking any action to stifle competition. Google said the allegations were made by Ciao.de, a German subsidiary of Microsoft Corp; Foundem.co.uk, a UK price comparison site; and EJustice.fr, a French site specialising in legal search inquiries.
In yet more news of Google, the paper also reports that Xerox is alleging in a lawsuit that Yahoo, Google and Google's YouTube have infringed on its patents on internet search and e-commerce technology. The suit alleges that Google's AdSense and AdWords software violate a Xerox patent on automatically generating queries. The suit also says Yahoo's Y!Q Contextual Search, Yahoo Search Marketing and Yahoo Publisher Network infringe the same patent. Xerox also says applications such as Google Maps and YouTube violate a Xerox patent on "integrating information and knowledge."
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