Yahoo! and Google Respond to Congressional Privacy Inquiry
Yahoo! and Google have both made announcements this month in response to the Congressional Inquiry into their privacy practices. Yahoo! has released an opt-out option for its users, giving them a choice as to whether or not to receive customized advertising as part of its online experience. Google did not unveil any new products or privacy measures but did declare in its response to the Inquiry that the engine is deeply committed to protecting users' privacy and that Google would be open to any sort of uniform privacy protection law set forth by the FTC, including appropriate penalties for violators. The FTC has not yet made any comment about Yahoo! or Google's responses.
AOL to Split in Two
Time Warner has announced that by early next year, the conglomerate will be separating its AOL dial-up Internet and advertising business into two different entities. The company hopes that by splitting the dial-up and advertising sections of AOL, other companies will be more inclined to consider AOL for mergers or acquisitions and that recent lags in revenue will be remedied. There has been speculation that once AOL is split in two its advertising section would merge with Microsoft or Yahoo! and that EarthLink may be interested in acquiring the AOL dial-up business.