SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer intends to keep the regulatory heat on Google as his company strives to lessen its rival’s dominance of Internet search.

In an appearance Tuesday at a search engine conference, Ballmer said Microsoft believes Google Inc. has done things to gain an unfair advantage in the Internet’s lucrative search advertising market. He didn’t specify the alleged misconduct.

Microsoft has rescinded the copyright complaint that resulted in the shutdown of the long-standing whistleblower website, Cryptome.org, after it published Redmond’s spy guide for law enforcement.

The company said it has asked Cryptome’s ISP, Network Solutions, that the website be restored and that it no longer wants the offending document to be killed. On Wednesday, Cryptome hosted a 22-page PDF that outlines what information Microsoft gathers about its users and what can be handed over to authorities if required.

Similar guidelines for law enforcement have leaked their way to the website before, exposing the policies of Facebook, AOL, Skype, and Yahoo, among others.

Microsoft lawyers swung the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA) in an attempt to force Cryptome to pull the document. When it refused to take action, Microsoft complained to Network Solutions, which not only closed the website, but placed a lock on the Cryptome.org domain to keep it closed.

The watchful eyes at Phoronix noticed that a pair of small changes were announced yesterday on the Ubuntu dev list. Both will affect the browser in Lucid Lynx — and both have to do with search.

The more subtle of the two is a small tweak within Firefox. When a user changes his or her default search, the Ubuntu start page’s search box will send queries to that provider. While most users may never see this in action (just about everyone sets a custom home page, right?), it’s a nice change and keeps the search experience consistent.

Firefox has just turned five, and it’s doubtful anybody outside of Redmond begrudges Mozilla’s celebrations. The open-source browser now accounts for 25% of the global market, according to figures from Net Applications, and has brought a radical rethink in what we expect from a browser.

Yahoo got pulled into a growing row between China and Google on Saturday, as its Chinese partner slammed Yahoo’s statements supporting Google while a source revealed the search giant had stayed silent about cyber-attacks.

Yahoo got pulled into a growing row between China and Google on Saturday, as its Chinese partner slammed Yahoo’s statements supporting Google while a source revealed the search giant had stayed silent about cyber-attacks.

Google, the world’s top Internet search engine, threatened to shut its Chinese-language Google.cn website and offices in China, saying a massive cyber-attack from China had resulted in theft of its intellectual property.

Here are some foreign companies that have withdrawn from or sold down their investments in the world’s third largest economy:

With opportunities abounding in renewable power and energy efficiency, traditional IT companies are making some rather aggressive moves into this market. This week, Google announced that it will launch its own utility, while Yahoo has found a source of funds for a new data center: the Department of Energy.

comScore, Inc. released its monthly Search analysis of the U.S. search marketplace. In November 2009, Americans conducted 14.4 billion core searches, with Google Sites accounting for 65.6 percent search market share, up slightly from 65.4 percent in October. Microsoft Sites grabbed 10.3 percent market share, up 0.4 percentage points versus October.
November 2009 U.S. Core Search [...]

RESTON, VA – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly comScore qSearch analysis of the U.S. search marketplace. In October 2009, Americans conducted 14.3 billion core searches, with Google Sites accounting for 65.4 percent search market share, up from 64.9 percent in September. Microsoft Sites grabbed 9.9 [...]