Adware company Claria this week took the unusual step of telling users to uninstall its software, following through on a promise to exit the adware business in order to focus on personalized search. Claria says it will stop sending pop-up ads to users' computers on July 1.

"Our software will continue to collect data about your web usage from your computer for research and other purposes as described in our Privacy Statement until September 30, 2006, unless you uninstall the software before this date," the company said in a statement on its Web site. "It is recommended that you uninstall all of GAIN Supported Software presently on your computer."

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France unveiled a new service Friday that would allow residents to view ultra-high resolution images of the country as well as its territories.

Called Geoportal, the site offers the ability to zoom in to as close as 20 inches off the ground, the best resolution available in Europe. 400,000 images comprise the tool along with 3,700 maps, which are updated every five years.

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OpenDocument made additional strides in establishing itself this week, as the Belgian government certified the OASIS format as the only acceptable standard for internal documents. In addition, OpenDocument backers are promoting the format in India at the IIT Delhi conference.

The proposal to standardize on OpenDocument was approved Friday by Belgium's Council of Ministers, according to a report in ZDNet Belgium. Beginning in 2008, all documents sent between government services must be in ODF, after the final proposal removed Microsoft's Office Open XML formats as a viable option.

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A local New York county politician that had sued Google over links to child pornography dropped his suit earlier this week. Jeffrey Toback of the Nassau County Legislature had said the search engine's paid advertisements include links to minors engaged in lewd acts. Lawyers for Toback filed documents Wednesday saying that the legislator wished to drop his case, but no public statement was made.

Google said that it was pleased the suit had been dropped, and called the allegations "irresponsible" and "far-fetched." A Google spokesperson said that Toback could have contacted the company first before pursuing action in court. The search engine said it takes steps to ensure access to child porn is difficult, and removes references to the subject and reports content to law enforcement.

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If the United States were to suffer from a catastrophic Internet disruption, it is likely that there would be a significant impact to both homeland and economic security. A report issued by the Business Roundtable Friday claims that the country is ill prepared for such an event.

The Business Roundtable is made of 160 CEOs from America's largest companies. The group says that there is too much ambiguity in what the response would be from both the public and private sectors.

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Symantec warned customers Thursday of a new flaw discovered within Microsoft Office that could potentially execute code without any evidence of a break-in. The problem centers around how the software handles embedded Flash files, according to an advisory.

Researcher Debasis Mohanty reported the vulnerability to the Full-Disclosure mailing list on Tuesday. "Malicious Flash files with explicit java scripts can be embedded within Excel spreadsheets using a "Shockwave Flash Object" which can be made to run once the file is opened by the user," he wrote.

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Google this week began offering for free selected content from its Google Video library that normally costs between 99 cents and $4.95. The company is testing out embedded advertising in the videos to see if it can bring in more revenue than charging per view.

An advertisement is displayed above the content, while the commercial appears at the end of the video. Google says it has signed on less than ten advertisers for the initial trial.

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When AOL debuted the new Netscape.com last Thursday, one of the first stories to appear on the site's front page read "AOL Copies Digg." To many a fan of the popular social news site, such a headline could not have been truer.

From the capability to vote on stories and the ability to see what your friends are voting on, Netscape had hopped on the new "social news" bandwagon pioneered by Digg. Even the front page itself looked very familiar. But the folks at Digg weren't flattered.

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Enterprise Linux firm Novell announced on Thursday that its board of directors had named company president Ronald Hovsepian to replace CEO Jack Messman, while simultaneously ousting CFO Joseph Tibbetts. The shakeup comes as Novell struggles to succeed as an open source company.

Messman, who has been a director since Novell's founding, will remain on the company's board until the end of October, and Novell's current vice president of finance and corporate controller Dana Russell will become interim CFO while the company finds a replacement for Tibbetts.

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In an attempt to protect its advertising partners from click fraud, Google is testing a new type of online ad that would only charge the advertiser when a user performs a certain action. This would assure advertisers that they are getting a return on their investment, while weeding out false clicks.

Click fraud occurs when a person displaying advertising on their pages either manually or automatically clicks a link repeatedly in order to generate revenue. The advertiser is then forced to pay for these false leads.

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Boeing on Thursday said it was considering the future of its Connexion in-flight Internet venture after six years of failing to turn a profit, but did not go as far as confirming a Wall Street Journal report claiming it was looking to sell or shut down the unit entirely.

The airplane manufacturer has reportedly spent $1 billion on the venture, which has seen low adoption rates among airline customers due to high costs and interest in alternate technology that relies on cellular signals rather than satellites. Internet usage on Connexion equipped planes has also been relatively low, leading Boeing officials to question whether frequent fliers even want the service.

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In a change sure to anger some privacy advocates, AT&T has changed its privacy policy to allow the company to claim ownership of subscriber information. The change will also permit AT&T to hand over data to others if it sees fit, analysts say.

Furthermore, the company said it will track the television viewing habits of customers who subscribe to its upcoming IPTV product. The data will be used to make recommendations on other programs that the viewer may be interested in.

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Panasonic on Thursday announced plans to debut its first Blu-ray Disc player, along with a matching receiver and speaker system for home theater enthusiasts. But moving to the high-definition format won't come cheap; Panasonic's DMP-BD10 player will cost $1,300 USD.

The Blu-ray player, SA-XR700 receiver and SB-TP1000 speaker package will reach retail outlets in September, Panasonic said. The delay will give time for Blu-ray to establish itself in the marketplace. Sony's new format is just starting to get out the door, with the first Blu-ray movies appearing on store shelves this week.

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Nokia abruptly called off its planned spinoff of its CDMA phone business with Japanese manufacturer Sanyo Thursday, while also announcing that it would all but exit from the CDMA market overall by April 2007. Market conditions and disagreements were cited as reasons for the sudden decision.

The two companies originally had announced plans to spin off their CDMA businesses into a single entity in February. However, apparent disagreements over the terms and conditions, as well as the platform's continuing struggles in the emerging markets sector, seems to have doomed the partnership.

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Toshiba on July 14 will launch in Japan the world's first HD DVD recorder, following the debut of its HD DVD player in March. The device, the RD-A1, will include one terabyte of hard disk space and can store up to 130 hours of high-definition programming.

But Toshiba's new recorder won't come cheap. Estimated pricing in Japan is 398,000 yen, or $3,470 USD. Still, the company hopes to sell 10,000 units by the end of 2006. Launch plans for the device in the United States and Europe has not yet been decided, Toshiba said.

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