Unhappiness manifested itself quickly as one group decided they would rather take their chances with Microsoft acquiring Yahoo, and filed a lawsuit to force Yahoo to consider takeover overtures.

A Bloomberg report said the Wayne County Employees’ Retirement System of Michigan, owner of about 13,600 Yahoo shares, sued Yahoo in Delaware’s Court of Chancery. Theirs could be the first of several others, depending on how Yahoo handles the ongoing negotiations.

Yahoo wants no part of a Microsoft buy, and announced they consider Microsoft’s initial $44.6 billion bid as undervaluing the company. If they choose to use it, Yahoo has a ‘poison pill’ defense they could invoke to keep out of Microsoft’s hands.

But the report said use of the poison pill appears unlikely, as it would further anger shareholders who have seen Yahoo lose more than half its market value over the past two years. Hedge fund president Nancy Havens of Havens Advisors told Bloomberg that Yahoo is “between a rock and a hard place” now, with only a goal of getting a sweetened price out of Microsoft.

Microsoft responded to Yahoo’s rejection of its offer with the intent of pressing its acquisition. Top Microsoft executives like CEO Steve Ballmer will work on convincing big institutional investors that the deal makes sense for both Microsoft and Yahoo.

The job title was listed as "freelance" and offered $5,000. Investigators say Ann Marie Linscott posted two ads on the site in November and had three responses from people who thought it was an ad for a freelance writer.

In emails Linscott, 48, informed the would be writers that she was looking for "silent assassins" to "eradicate" a 56-year-old Oroville Calif., woman named "Carol", according to the FBI. Linscott had been having an affair with the woman’s husband who she met online a number of years ago while taking an online college course.

Linscott used the moniker "bourne2run" as part of her email address. A California grand jury brought murder-for hire-charges against Linscott, who is now looking at up to 30 years in prison and a $750,000 fine for her ad. She was arrested in Grand Rapids, Mich on January 24.
 

This represents a definite shift in geography for Google; the last time we heard about schools and the company’s software, all of the colleges were clustered in Michigan.  Now, the University of North Carolina Greensboro, Clemson University, the University of Texas San Antonio, Kennesaw State University, and Arkansas State University have been named in a press release.

“Google has always had a close relationship with higher education,” explained Jeff Huber, vice president of engineering at Google.  “Google Apps Education Edition is a groundbreaking option for universities, and we want to work closely with them to implement smart use of technology for education.”

Every bit of software that Google provides should be free.  In return, the company will just get some exposure to college students (and I can assure you that most of those students are already using Google.com and Gmail, anyway).

So there you go – more good deeds, courtesy of Google.  Now if the company could just get those weather machines to work . . .

From the sound of it, the alliance is aimed at avoiding scenes like this one from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:

_{"But Mr Dent, the plans have been available in the local planning office for the last nine months."}

_{"Oh yes, well as soon as I heard I went straight round to see them, yesterday afternoon. You hadn’t exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them, had you? I mean, like actually telling anybody or anything."}

_{"But the plans were on display…"}

_{"On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them."}

_{"That’s the display department."}

_{"With a flashlight."}

_{"Ah, well the lights had probably gone."}

_{"So had the stairs."}

_{"But look, you found the notice didn’t you?"}

_{"Yes," said Arthur, "yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard’."}

Google will help Michigan implement its Sitemap Protocol, which allows search engines that support it to access and index state webpages, specifically records kept in large online databases so there are visible in search results.

 "For example," says Google’s State Policy Counsel John Burchett, "Michigan Education Assessment Program (MEAP) test scores for hundreds of schools spanning multiple years currently reside in over 25,000 documents.

"The new partnership will allow a user to find the results for the school name and test year, eliminating multiple searches requests and clicks. It will also help make accessible information about child day care centers and homes, workers compensation appellate decisions, fish stocking, Michigan school report cards, lane closures on Michigan roads, and more."

Who on Earth, may I ask, would want to buy fish stockings?

“Michigan universities will be among the first to launch Google technology that will transform their college e-mail systems from relics of the 1990s into cutting-edge technology that provides the school and students thousands of dollars in free products,” reports Eric Morath of The Detroit News.

Two things caught my eye when I read that sentence; the first was the word “relics.”  Hyperbole has its uses, but Morath isn’t being cute, according to Jeff Pestun, an assistant director of information technology at Hope College.  “We’re coming from a Web-based e-mail system that was launched in the mid-to-late 90s,” Pestun told Morath.  “We couldn’t keep up with the arms race both in terms of the features and the disk space students were demanding.”

The second attention-getter was the phrase “thousands of dollars.”  Pestun estimates that colleges might have to spend as much as $300,000 in initial costs to acquire a system like Google’s.  Google Apps for Education is, to repeat a point, free.  The (small) catch comes as the company attempts to hook college students on its products.

There are worse fates, however, than seeing ads for Google’s many services.  Heck, a few lucky souls might even get job offers from Google’s offices in Michigan.  It looks like Google’s doing good things in the Great Lakes State.

Michigan Thrilled With Google Offices

Michigan politicians hitched a ride on the Google bandwagon, with Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje and Governor Jennifer Granholm visiting the perk-laden cubicle space. The state was able to land what should add up to 1,000 jobs to an otherwise bleak job landscape in Michigan.

Larry Page, Google’s co-founder, attended the University of Michigan, and Google has been partnering with the school for its Book Search scanning efforts. That connection helped the state bring in the AdWords headquarters.

The Detroit Free Press said the typical Google whimsy was on display in the new digs. Elmo dolls, plastic pools, and hammocks were on display throughout the three-story offices.

“This is the most obvious example of what we are trying to become,” Granholm told the Googlers at a reception Thursday, the report said. “We don’t want you to go to Chicago or San Francisco. We want you to stay right here.”

We also noticed available opportunities for YouTube in Boston, also referenced at MediaBistro. Similar YouTube jobs in Detroit, Dallas, and other cities seek candidates as well.

Speculation on a Google move into Boston received some circumstantial backing. The Boston Channel reported that Google wants substantial office space in the area:

…the Internet giant has been looking for anywhere from 100,000 to 200,000 square feet of office space. Cambridge was said to be at the top of the company’s list because it’s believed Harvard and MIT can provide a pool of technology talent.

Such a move would be an economic boost to the Boston area, according to the article. Google recently revealed plans to open a datacenter in North Carolina, where its job impact would replace long-departed furniture industry jobs with a number of new positions.

Google has rapidly expanded operations, on at least a planning level, to span the US. Their places of operation can almost be drawn on a map of America with a circle. To date they have largely left the middle of the country out of their plans, Chicago being the closest city to the traditional Midwest where they have operations.

If they do move into the Midwest, we think Cincinnati could be a candidate. In 2005, Google and other investors plowed around $100 million into Current Communications Group, which works with Cincinnati-based Cinergy to deliver broadband and voice services over power lines (BPL).

A move there backing the initiative could be instrumental in getting BPL a higher profile, and would help Google in its net neutrality battles by demonstrating the effectiveness of BPL as an alternative to the telecoms and cable companies that dominate the broadband business.

Earlier today, the Internet rejoiced as Michael Crook was forced to eat crow and issue a public apology for his antics revolving around the DMCA. The celebration, however, was short lived as the face of true online tyranny, the RIAA, made its presence felt yet again by disclosing its intention to file suit against twelve students from the University of Michigan for copyright infringement.

Here’s an excerpt from the RIAA’s letter to the school, which can be viewed in its entirety in a Wired blog post by Eliot Van Buskirk:

On Friday, March 9, and Saturday, March 10, the University of Michigan received notification that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) intends to sue or receive settlement from more than a dozen members of the U-M community engaged in unlawful peer-to-peer file sharing of music over the Internet. The RIAA has designated these individuals through IP addresses, and the University is in the process of identifying and notifying them.

It’s a shrewd move by the RIAA, to be sure. I mean after all, college students have plenty of money just lying around to pay these kinds of settlements. Also, the fact that the RIAA has convinced the school to hand over the names of the students without even having to go through the trouble of obtaining a subpoena is an act of sheer genius, never mind the fact that such action is most likely a violation of due process.

Of course, not everyone is rolling over and played dead for the RIAA.

National Public Radio has decided to step up and take on the RIAA head on, challenging legislation endorsed by the entity that increases the royalty rates for streaming audio content — a move that is seen as a crushing blow to online radio sites that provide content from RIAA artists.

NPR VP of Communication, Andi Sporkin, issued some strong words for the RIAA which can be found in this article by Steve Johnson of the Chicago Tribune:

This decision penalizes public radio stations for fulfilling their mandate, it penalizes emerging and non-mainstream musical artists who have always relied on public radio for visibility and ultimately it penalizes the American public, whose local station memberships and taxes will be necessary to cover the millions of dollars that will now be required as payment.

On behalf of the public radio system, NPR will pursue all possible action to reverse this decision, which threatens to severely reduce local stations’ public service and limit the reach of the entire music community. NPR will begin on Friday, March 16 by filing a petition for reconsideration with the CRB panel, the first step in this process. We ask that the online royalties be returned to their historic arrangement and that public radio can continue to provide its vital service to music discovery.

And in my favorite piece of RIAA news today, Consumerist is sponsoring a contest to determine the Worst Company In America. It’s been a brutal competition, but the finals have come down to Haliburton and the RIAA, with the latter currently leading the way with 58% of the vote.

You know, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has already taken care of one Crook that grossly misunderstood the Digital Millennium Copyright Act; perhaps now they can focus their efforts on the next batch of DMCA abusers, the RIAA.

Nearly every site link I click lands me on a blank page with only the top-navigation bar present, or worse yet, produces a full-screen advertisement that leads me nowhere. Being the helpful person I aspire to be, I proceed to look for a friendly Feedback or Make a Comment link (hoping, of course, that it works) to alert the appropriate parties of the error, and make a comment or two about those ads.

Here’s where I face the second challenge in my crusade for online business knowledge – I can’t find a link to a Feedback form anywhere. Nothing. Nada. Naught. Nil. Even the Contact Us link takes way too long to stumble across.

So, what do I do now? You guessed it. Adios. I’m searching for the next crucial, global business resource quicker than you can say “User-Friendly”. And at my next stop – The Official State of Michigan Website – I find the information I need along with a feedback form I can really sink my teeth into. It’s perfect. It asks me to kindly copy and paste the distasteful URL and error, provides me with a comment box to describe my objections and offer a peaceful solution, and even wants to know my browser type, obviously so a team of government webmasters can narrow down possible causes of the infraction. It’s short, sweet and, best of all, I don’t have to give my name. Like a lot of people, I like to remain as anonymous as possible.

I guess it all comes down to time. Webmasters can be so busy maintaining their web sites that they don’t always have the time they need to make sure the thing is actually functioning correctly. That’s where an easy-to-use Feedback page comes in handy. Similar to a restaurant comment card, a Feedback page can help point out what tastes bad in your cyber buffet. Sure, you will probably get a few mind-numbing rants about the salad bar sneeze-guard, but if you take user comments with a grain of salt, a Feedback page can offer extremely valuable information. And if you ask, people will even tell you exactly what changes and/or updates will make your website more useful to them, and to those who have yet to find their voice.

Oneupweb is the only two-time winner of the ClickZ award for “Best Search Engine Engine Marketing Firm”. StraightUpSearchs blog authors include experts from Oneupwebs natural SEO, pay-per-click campaign management, research, marketing, design, and sales departments.

Search Engine Watch posted an update to a story from early summer, where Google was reputed to be seeking more office space around the country. It looks as though they may have found a home.

Google has place a job posting online for ‘Server Room Technicians’ in Ann Arbor:

SEW notes a couple of factors that likely weighed in the Wolverines’ favor in getting a Michigan-based Googleplex. Larry Page went to Michigan, and the University’s library is one of the participants in Google Print.

View all articles by David Utter

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.