MSN to charge for services

The era of free Internet services could be drawing to a close, with the announcement from Microsoft that it is considering introducing charges to its popular MSN portal. Although the most popular portal in the UK, ahead of rivals Yahoo and Freeserve, and enjoying 200 million hits a month worldwide, analysts believe it is running at a loss, made more acute by the current economic climate and a general unwillingness to dedicate significant budgets to online advertising. Neil Holloway, managing director for Microsoft UK, said that charges could be introduced by the end of year and indicated that a yearly fee would be around ?60. ...more

Ask Jeeves serves up celebrity biogs

Ask Jeeves has unveiled a new 'famous people' service to its search. People searching for details on a famous person are now presented with a human written quick biography of the person concerned provided by who2.com. ...more

Interfacing with Jakob Nielsen [part 1]

Jakob Nielsen, the world's best known expert on Web site usability is in London this week fronting the Usability Roadshow. Doctor Nielsen is best known for his method of heuristic evaluation and development of Web sites with small groups of testers and incremental development. He is also the author of a number of books on usability, his latest being Homepage Usability, 50 Web sites Deconstructed. ...more

Handspring's earnings leap in third quarter

PDA manufacturer Handspring has passed analysts' estimates in the third quarter and increased its revenues by 36 per cent. The company posted revenues of $70.5m (?48. ...more

Sony BDP-S1E completes Blu-ray range

Sony has unveiled its latest Blu-ray Disc player, the Europe-bound BDP-S1E. While the player provides native 1920 x 1080p (progressive) high-definition video for Blu-ray (BD) titles, it also features a 1080p video upscaling facility that purports to 'take your old movies out of the DVD-Video domain and represents them with a new lustre and character that is closer to HD resolution'. The BDP-S1E has been designed to integrate with Sony's Bravia range of TV sets and home theatre systems. ...more