WebProNews

Google Russia Loses CTO To Mail.ru

Google seems to be having a hard time holding onto its overseas execs.  A little less than two weeks ago, Kai-Fu Lee, the president of Google China, announced his departure, and now, Jennifer Trelewicz, the (former) CTO of Google Russia, has also found another job.

Russian President Establishes YouTube Presence

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has joined fellow leaders including Barack Obama, Queen Elizabeth II, and Nicolas Sarkozy on a world stage of sorts.  Medvedev, who already used a video blog, established his own YouTube channel this week.

Social Media Outages Tied To Russian-Georgian Animosity

The reason - if not the exact source - of yesterday's attacks on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites seem to have been determined.  Multiple experts have indicated that accounts belonging to a Georgian blogger were the actual targets. This involves not the American state, mind you, but the small country that Russia fought using both tanks and hackers.  And today actually marks the first anniversary of the start of that conflict.

Cyberspies Hack U.S. Electrical Grid

Chinese and Russian cyberspies have hacked into the U.S. electrical grid and have left behind software that could be used to interfere with the system, a report said Wednesday. According to the Wall Street Journal, U.S. intelligence officials said cyberspies had penetrated the system repeatedly last year, without damaging it. The officials warned they could try to disrupt it during a crisis or a war.

Firefox Pushes Google Away In Russia

Google may be used to seeing its market share climb, but it looks like the search giant is getting kicked down a rung or two in one country.  Mozilla has decided to make Yandex, and not Google, the default search provider in future Russian versions of Firefox.

FriendFeed Expands With Six New Interface Languages

There are all sorts of stories about friendships that were formed despite language barriers, and let's not forget that many people have learned how to speak English even if it's not their native tongue.  But FriendFeed has taken a step towards accommodating current members and recruiting new ones by launching six new language interfaces today.

Google In Search Talks With Russian Social Network

Users of Russian social network Odnoklassniki.ru are getting a taste of Google, according to a new report, with a search box becoming the subject of some tests.  If all goes well, the box should become a permanent feature, and Google will then gain access to a significant share of the Russian ad market.

Google Sued For $3 Billion Over AdSense

Suing for $3 billion is an almost insane act.  Combine it with a corporate name that translates to "The Age of Aquarius," and you've got something that should cause a judge to hurt himself laughing.  Yet since everything's taking place in Russia, it seems possible that a new lawsuit will cause problems for Google.

Russian Authorities Halt Google Acquisition

Like a hockey player who wasn't expecting a body check, Google's gotten an unpleasant surprise in the antitrust department.  Even as the company was focused on its deal with Yahoo, Russian authorities have stopped its acquisition of Begun.

Yandex Puts Off IPO Plans

Solid reports have indicated for several months that Yandex, the popular Russian search engine, would file for an IPO sometime this year.  Now it seems that international problems have made it delay things until 2009 instead.Blame the global economy for starters.  Unsteady markets and rising inflation have caused investors to become nervous, making them less likely to sink money into anything without a long and solid track record.  Yandex, which was founded in 1997 and became profitable in 2002, might not be embraced.