We have lots of interesting news for you this week. We take a look at China’s web restrictions on the eve of the Olympics, Dell’s new iPod challenger, the continuing war between Scrabble and Scrabulous, and a very cuddly robot.

Plus a new search engine, Cuil, has been generating a lot of media interest this week, with claims that it could out-perform Google. Does it? We’re not so sure…

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Hazel Butters
CEO
Prompt Communications

China censors web for journalists

By Ellie Turner

With the Olympic Games a week away, the BBC is reporting that journalists working out in China will not have full access to the World Wide Web. Websites blocked include those that relate to the spiritual movement Falun Gong as well as a number of news and human rights sites. The BBC’s site and Wikipedia were also blocked, but restrictions on these have now been lifted.

China has always been known to follow strict codes when it comes to internet control, but when the country was bidding for the games it promised that all journalists would be free to report.

Kevan Gosper, from the International Olympic Committee, commented, “There will be full, open and free internet access during Games time but I have been advised that some sensitive sites would be blocked.”

More than 20,000 foreign media personnel are due in the Chinese capital to cover the Olympic Games and many are already moving into the press and broadcast centres in Beijing.

Sun Weide, an Olympic spokesperson, said, “During the Olympic Games we will provide reporters with sufficient and convenient internet access so the Olympic Games will not be affected."

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Hasbro scrabbles to stop Scrabulous

By Terrie Chilvers

Popular Facebook application Scrabulous was suspended earlier this week as a result of legal action by Hasbro, maker of the bona fide version of Scrabble. According to BBC News, Hasbro is claiming infringement of copyright and trademark, and asked Facebook to block access following the launch of its official version of Scrabble. Scrabulous was then disabled for users in the US and Canada.

All is not lost though – Scrabulous has now re-emerged sporting a new look and name. Fans can now play Wordscraper, a similar word game that has different rules and circular tiles. It remains to be seen whether this will be enough to keep Hasbro lawyers at bay. “It’s going to come down to the little things like squares and circles and double, triple and so on,” said Ethan Horwitz, an intellectual property lawyer talking to the BBC. “What they have done is taking a big step in the right direction, but I don’t think it’s a big enough step.”

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Dell Pod faces stiff competition

By Dave Wilby

Dell is considering releasing a rival to Apple’s iPod in an effort to make more of an impact in the consumer tech toy market. However, any new pocket media player hoping to make a noise in a market which Apple so utterly dominates despite the efforts of Microsoft, Creative, Archos and more, will have to be an extremely innovative piece of kit. Back in 2003, Dell released its Digital Jukebox series of MP3 players to very little effect.

According to the Times Online, Dell’s player would potentially be bundled with an online download service similar to Apple's iTunes. The Wall Street Journal reckons it could even be available as early as September. We’ll keep you updated.

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Forrester acquires JupiterResearch

By Mike Kane

There was some major news in the world of analyst relations on Thursday, as an announcement crossed the wires that Forrester Research has acquired JupiterResearch for $23 million in cash plus assumed liabilities.

Forrester and JupiterResearch both offer business professionals syndicated research, analysis, and advice backed by proprietary data. JupiterResearch has a strong library of syndicated research and consumer data and is experienced in market forecasting. Forrester states that the acquisition of JupiterResearch marks a major step forward for the Marketing and Strategy segment of its business.

In an earnings call late on Thursday, George Colony, CEO of Forrester, provided some more detail, stating that bringing the two brands together will increase shareholder value and cash flow over the long-term. In addition, Forrester looks to gain up to 350 new clients from the acquisition. Colony believes that JupiterResearch’s 83 employees will mesh well with the Forrester team. A full transcript of the earnings call is available at Seeking Alpha.

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Cuil is not so cool

By James Gerber

Cuil (pronounced ‘cool’), a new search engine created by former Googlers, has been generating a lot of buzz due to claims it has more than three times the number of indexed web pages than any rival search engine, at 120 billion. Cuil's developers are banking on a fact often missed by software entrepeuners - that end users don’t care about the technology behind their applications, they simply want something that will improve their lives.

Oh yeah, and something they can, you know, use.

Right now, Cuil’s magazine-like interface is mind-bogglingly bad. Although it might look nice on first glance, it puts the wrong pictures next to web pages and isn’t as useful as a list interface as Google or Yahoo. When people are looking to search the web, they expect a list that they can easily scroll through while looking for the information they need. Having more text and more pictures just makes it more confusing - doubly so when the pictures have nothing to do with the content of the links.

A huge index of web pages means more information is accessible, and with it, greater potential to help people find what they need to know. But, for a company like Cuil to be successful, it needs to recognize that users don’t want larger indexes, they want better results that are more relevant to them, delivered quickly and organized in a logical way. If Cuil can leverage the massive index it has to achieve that, it will succeed. Certainly, it has plenty of tech savvy minds to improve it.

If it doesn’t focus on what people need, it will be another company with superior technology but no users.

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I Heart Robots

By Dave Wilby

The first in a new generation of ‘emotional machines’ was on show at London's Science Museum this week, throwing up a number of new philosophical quandaries regarding the ethics of machines that emulate ‘feelings’. The Heart Robot might ultimately be used as a responsive model patient in medical treatment, but right now all it wants is a bit of a cuddle and some stroking. It has a responsive heartbeat, reactive eyes and learns to mimic the behaviour of humans.

Inventor David McGoran, of the University of the West of England, predicts the Heart Robot will have major implications for social care: "This raises really interesting social and ethical questions," said Mr McGoran. "If (scientists) can put this natural interface into robots then it would be much easier for us to relate to (robots)."

The Times Online has a nice gallery of the Heart Robot and friends at the Science Museum.