Monthly Archives: June 2006

Goog sells Baidu shares

Google sold their 5% pre-IPO shares of Chinese search giant Baidu, it was reported today. I guess that means no buy-out and moves instead to increase Google share in China. Or maybe they’ll just give up on total world domination and work on dominating search everywhere else. For what it’s worth, the shares were bought for $5 mill and were worth $63 mill at the end of May when the sale actually went through. That’s a whole lot of AdWords clicks that don’t have to happen, I suppose. Just a quick note in case it’s of interest; I find anything about non-US web giants of interest.

Google Maps updated – still little in Africa

Much discussion online today about a new, high resolution update for much of Google Maps but I can’t help noticing – there are still almost no cities or anything else beyond national boundries for much of Africa. That’s embarrassing when you’re trying to set up an international map and you realize you’ve chosen a tool that represents Africa as a largely undifferentiated mass.

Global Voices Online starts project re imprisoned bloggers

As some readers here may have noticed, my friends at the Committee to Protect Bloggers have curtailed their work due to funding shortages. People still concerned about bloggers threatened by their governments because of the contents of their blogs (and there are plenty of reasons to be concerned) should check out this new advocacy project, from Global Voices Online. See also the project’s introductory post and wiki. Thanks to Curt for pointing this out.

Bloggers gotta stick together!