human rights

Microsoft: “Don’t Be Evil” Is Google’s Motto, Not Ours, Redux

John Paczkowski in News on March 26, 2010 at 7:10 am PT

Microsoft isn’t paying much heed to calls for it to follow Google’s lead in China. In January, CEO Steve Ballmer said the company had no plans to adopt a “new approach” to doing business in the country, and evidently, that position hasn’t changed much in the ensuing months.

What’s the Chinese Word for Bing? Google Threatens to Leave China.

John Paczkowski in News on January 12, 2010 at 4:48 pm PT

Evidently, Google is taking its informal “don’t be evil motto” a bit more seriously these days. The search sovereign threatened late Tuesday to pull out of its operations in China after detecting a “highly sophisticated and targeted attack on [its] corporate infrastructure originating from China.” Targeted in the assault: The Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.

Yahoo Hires Amber Allman as New D.C. Director of Public Affairs

Kara Swisher in News on November 18, 2009 at 9:18 pm PT

Earlier today, BoomTown reported that Yahoo was poised to name a few new top execs at its Silicon Valley HQ. But the company has also hired a new director of public affairs in the nation’s capital–Amber Allman of 463 Communications. With a spate of regulatory issues coming up around its pending search and online advertising deal with Microsoft, Yahoo will need all the help it can get.

For Shame: The Congo Nightmare Continues

Kara Swisher in News on August 11, 2009 at 9:09 am PT

Eve Ensler, playwright, activist and creator of V-Day, appeared at the the seventh D: All Things Digital conference in late May to talk about the links between what goes into making mobile phones and human rights violations. There, she shed much needed light on the dire situation in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where some of the worst atrocities are now being committed on the population in a terrible civil war. She predicted it would get worse without massive international intervention. Tragically, she was right.

Liveblogging the 2009 Yahoo Annual Meeting: Carol-tastic!

Kara Swisher in News on June 25, 2009 at 10:18 am PT

BoomTown is at the lovely Santa Clara Marriott in Silicon Valley at the 2009 Yahoo annual meeting, liveblogging the event, which should be spectacularly dull. Here is a rundown of what went on. 10:05 am: The meeting kicks off with a little video presentation with various and sundry television talking heads saying “Yahoo” in quick succession. Actually, this was the year during which all of those hype-magnets repeated “Twitter” so many times that it has began to make my ears bleed. But I like the spirit of trying to make Yahoo seem relevant and innovative again.