Beta code of 'Office 11' emerges

Microsoft sets off along the road to 'Office 11', the next version of its massively popular office software suite. The company has now officially announced the release of Beta 1 code. Don't rush, however, to get your hands on the software. ...more

Cash rewards for grassing spammers could be up for grabs

The US Federal and Trade Commission is to consider a report on whether cash rewards for grassing spammers would be effective. The report says that although cyber sleuths may have the technical skills to garner a lot of information about where spam comes from, the evidence needed to identify several streams of spam to a particular source is often not at their disposal. Clearly spammers practice their art for money, and the banks that look after that money and have information such as addresses and so on simply aren't legally able to give it. ...more

Ask Jeeves to offer its own version of Firefox?

Ask Jeeves has begun talks with Mozilla that could see a version of Firefox under the search engine's name as early as this year. In the Ask Jeeves blog, Tuoc Luong, EVP Technology, reveals that he met with Mozilla Organisation representatives to discuss 'how Ask can make contributions to Mozilla that make sense', notably in two areas: the Firefox browser and desktop search. 'I shared that Mozilla browser didn't do it for me but Firefox certainly converted many of AJ engineering (including myself) over exclusively to Firefox,' writes Luong. ...more

Steve Case to step down from AOL Time Warner

Steve Case is step down as AOL Time Warner chairman, finally carrying the can for the failing AOL-Time Warner merger. The new company has lost 70 per cent of its value since the merger took place, back in January 2000. The change will be effective as of the company's annual shareholders meeting in May. ...more

Google launches four new tools

Google has introduced another set of online tools aimed at improving the search process for its visitors. The four new tools launched yesterday build on Google's strategy of providing ways to allow developers to add their own applets to the services but also building on the growing trend towards community shared information. A new version of Google Desktop 4 introduces Google Gadgets. ...more