competitor

In a reversal of what is generally considered the real world and what is virtual, metatags suddenly matter in a court of law, even if they haven’t mattered online for some time now. For one defendant, they matter as much as just under a half-million dollars matters. Dropping keywords into the metatags of a website is an old school SEO technique. And by old school I mean pre-googlistoric. Stuffing metatags in the age of Google, which ignores them, is about as useful as peacock feathers on an armadillo.

eBay is in talks to buy a minority stake in South Korean competitor Gmarket and is in discussions with Interpark to buy its 37 percent stake.The companies are waiting for approval from the Korea Fair Trade Commission, eBay spokesman Jose Mallabo said."There can be no assurance that the KFTC will approve the possible transaction, that an agreement will be reached or that a transaction will occur," Mallabo said in a statement.

Cuil, the search engine launched at the beginning of the week with brassy fanfare and progressive decrescendo on Monday, still looks about the same on Friday. It's faster, at least, without 50 million—seriously—queries hitting its categorized servers. The images are still a bit out of whack, the categories still odd, the results certainly alternative.

Facebook is suing a German social networking site alleging that it closely copies Facebook's design and layout.Facebook filed a complaint in California federal court on Friday against studiVZ for copying its look, feel, features and services of Facebook.

When people talk about Google Street View, the conversations tend to focus on either privacy or its undeniable "neat" factor.  Thanks to Google's success in other areas, profitability just doesn't come up.  But EveryScape has built its business around similar virtual tours, and the company just raised $7 million in funding.

A revived squabble between two recreational flooring companies has resulted in Google being subpoenaed for some of its keyword purchase data. The full implications of the order are not yet known, but third parties are nervous about being pulled in, and others worry about competitive data being de facto purchased through the courts.

Those bringing lawsuits claiming that bidding on competitor trademark keywords is a form of infringement aren't doing well in court. Though a few cases have made it past one court or another, those and others are getting caught up in the Second Circuit.

Whether it’s being polite, trying not to scare its competitor, or somehow believes this is true, Google has repeatedly claimed that it isn’t challenging the Microsoft Office Suite.  But now a feature within Gmail looks a lot like a presentation tool, and onlookers are having an even harder time accepting the search engine giant’s word.