Google reigns as world’s most powerful 10-year-oldBy Michael Liedtke, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A visitor passes a Google exhibition in Duesseldorf, western Germany. (AP Photo/Rene Tillmann)MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) — When Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google Inc. on Sept. 7, 1998, they had little more than their ingenuity, four computers and an investor’s $100,000 bet on their belief that an Internet search engine could change the world.It sounded preposterous 10 years ago, but look now: Google draws upon a gargantuan computer network, nearly 20,000 employees and a $150 billion market value to redefine media, marketing and technology.Perhaps Google’s biggest test in the next decade will be finding a way to pursue its seemingly boundless ambitions without triggering a backlash that derails the company.“You can’t do some of the things that they are trying to do without eventually facing some challenges from the government and your rivals,” said Danny Sullivan, who has followed Google since its inception and is now editor-in-chief of SearchEngineLand.Google’s expanding control over the flow of Internet traffic and advertising already is raising monopoly concerns.The intensifying regulatory and political scrutiny on Google’s expansion could present more roadblocks in the future. Even now, there’s a chance U.S. antitrust regulators will challenge Google’s plans to sell ads for Yahoo Inc., a fading Internet star whose recent struggles have been magnified by Google’s success. Privacy watchdogs also have sharpened their attacks on Google’s retention of potentially sensitive information about the 650 million people who use its search engine and other Internet services like YouTube, Maps and Gmail. If the harping eventually inspires rules that restrict Google’s data collection, it could make its search engine less relevant and its ad network less profitable.To protect its interests, Google has hired lobbyists to bend the ears of lawmakers and ramped up its public relations staff to sway opinion as management gears up to conquer new frontiers.“Google will keep pushing the envelope,” predicted John Battelle, who wrote a book about the company and now runs Federated Media, a conduit for Internet publishers and advertisers. “It’s one of the things that seems to make them happy.”In the latest example of its relentless expansion, Google has just released a Web browser to make its search engine and other online services even more accessible and appealing. Not every peripheral step has gone smoothly, though; several of the company’s ancillary products have flopped or never lived up to the hype.Extending Google’s ubiquity to cell phones and other mobile devices sits at the top of management’s agenda for the next decade.But the lengthy to-do list also includes: making digital copies of all the world’s books; establishing electronic file cabinets for people’s health records; leading the alternative energy charge away from fossil fuels; selling computer programs to businesses over the Internet; and tweaking its search engine so it can better understand requests stated in plain language, just like a human would.“There are people who think we are plenty full of ourselves right now, but from inside at least, it doesn’t look that way,” said Craig Silverstein, Google’s technology director and the first employee hired by Page and Brin. “I think what keeps us humble is realizing how much further we have to go.”Page and Brin, both 35 now and worth nearly $19 billion apiece, declined to be interviewed for this story. But they have never left any doubt they view Google as a force for good — a philosophy punctuated by their corporate motto: “Don’t Be Evil.”“If we had a lightsaber, we would be Luke (Skywalker),” Silverstein said.A “Star Wars” analogy can just as easily be used to depict Google as an imposing empire. It holds commanding leads in both the Internet search and advertising markets. The company processes nearly two-thirds of the world’s online search requests, according to the research firm comScore Inc., and sells about three-fourths of the ads tied to search requests, according to another firm, eMarketer Inc.The dominance has enabled Google to rake in $48 billion from Internet ads since 2001. Google hasn’t hoarded all of that money: the company has paid $15 billion in commissions to the Web sites that run its ads during the same period, helping to support major online destinations like AOL, Ask.com and MySpace as well as an array of bloggers.“Google is the oxygen in this ecosystem,” Battelle said.The company hopes to inhale even more Internet advertising from the biggest deal in its short history — a $3.2 billion acquisition of online marketing service DoubleClick Inc. that was completed six months ago.Google also is trying to mine more money from its second-largest acquisition, YouTube, the Internet’s leading video channel. YouTube is expected to generate about $200 million in revenue this year, an amount that analysts believe barely scratches the video site’s moneymaking potential.Eventually, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt wants the entire company to generate $100 billion in annual revenue, which would make it roughly as big as the two largest information-technology companies — Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM Corp. — each are now. This year, Google will surpass the $20 billion threshold for the first time.Schmidt, 53, who became Google’s CEO in 2001, seems determined to stick around to reach his goal. He, Brin and Page have made an informal pact to remain the company’s brain trust through 2024, at least.But some rivals are determined to thwart Google. TV and movie conglomerate Viacom Inc. is suing Google for $1 billion for alleged copyright infringement at YouTube, while Microsoft signaled how desperately it wants to topple Google by offering to buy Yahoo for $47.5 billion this year.Microsoft withdrew the takeover bid in a dispute over Yahoo’s value, but some analysts still think those two companies may get together if they fall farther behind Google.The notion that Microsoft — the richest technology company — would spend so much time worrying about Google seemed inconceivable in September 1998, when Page and Brin decided to convert their research project in Stanford University’s computer science graduate program into a formal company.Page, a University of Michigan graduate, and Brin, a University of Maryland alum, began working on a search engine — originally called BackRub — in 1996 because they believed a lot of important content wasn’t being found on the Web. At the time, the companies behind the Internet’s major search engines — Yahoo, AltaVista and Excite — were increasingly focused on building multifaceted Web sites.Internet search was considered such a low priority at the time that Page and Brin couldn’t even find anyone willing to pay a couple of million dollars to buy their technology. Instead, they got a $100,000 investment from one of Sun Microsystems Inc.’s co-founders, Andy Bechtolsheim, and filed incorporation papers so they could cash a check made out to Google Inc. In a nod to their geeky roots as children of computer science and math professors, Page and Brin had derived the name from the mathematical term “googol” — a 1 followed by 100 zeros.Later they would raise a total of about $26 million from family, friends and venture capitalists to help fund the company and pay for now-famous employee perks like free meals and snacks.Even after Google became an official company in 1998, the business continued to operate out of the founders’ Stanford dorm rooms.Like Google’s stripped-down home page, the company itself had a bare-bones aesthetic. Page’s room was converted into a “server farm” for the three computers that ran the search engine, which then processed about 10,000 requests per day compared with about 1.5 billion per day now. The headquarters were in Brin’s room in a neighboring dorm hall, where the founders and Silverstein wrestled for control of another computer to bang out programming code.Within a few weeks after incorporating, Google moved into the garage of a Menlo Park, Calif., home owned by Susan Wojcicki, who became a Google executive and is now Brin’s sister-in-law (Google bought the house in 2006). Even back in 1998, there was some free food — usually bags of M&Ms and Silverstein’s homemade bread.Jump back to today: The company occupies a 1.5 million-square-foot headquarters called the “Googleplex” — as well as two dozen other U.S. offices and hubs in more than 30 other countries. And its search engine — believed to index at least 40 billion Web pages — now runs on hundreds of thousands of computers kept in massive data centers around the world.The growth dumbfounds Silverstein, whose only goal when he started was to help make Google successful enough to employ 80 people.“It’s natural when a company gets big that some people become fearful of that,” Silverstein said. “All we can do is to be as upfront and straightforward as possible. We are not trying to be malicious or have some sneaky plan to put you in our thrall. There are some people who will never believe that.”

Iran to share nuclear technology with Nigeria

Iran to share nuclear technology with Nigeria Written by Hector Igbikiowubo Agency reports Tuesday, 09 September 2008 FEDERAL Government recently moved a step closer to obtaining nuclear energy following an understanding with the Iranian government which would see the later share its technology with Nigeria for the purposes of electricity generation. .While explaining the terms of the deal, Tijjani Kaura, a senior Nigerian foreign ministry official said the technology was not for any military use. The agreement was announced after a four_day meeting between Iranian and Nigerian officials in Abuja.Details of the deal were not announced, so it is unclear what technology Iran would provide to Nigeria.When contacted, Shamsideen Elegba, Director General of the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA) said only the foreign ministry can comment on details of the deal.He noted that before any technical agreement could be reached, there has to be a political understanding between both nations, adding that the deal that has been reached amounts to an ‘understanding’.President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua recently said the country may have to develop the capacity to utilize nuclear power for power generation to alleviate Nigeria’s chronic shortfalls in electricity production.“Who knows, nuclear power may be the only source of energy in the future, and we must think of the future,” Yar’Adua told Nigerian lawmakers. However, bringing nuclear power to Nigeria isn’t going to be simple. The country faces many obstacles, according to Jon Wolfsthal, a non_proliferation fellow at the Center for Strategic & International Studies in Washington.“Countries with primitive energy infrastructures (like Nigeria) have a long way to go towards having a productive nuclear power generator,” Wolfsthal told UPI.Nigeria’s power grid is considered primitive by international standards and would have to be upgraded to be compatible with a nuclear energy source, he said.“When you build a nuclear power plant, you have to have something to hook it up to,” he said.Fortunately for Nigeria, the state coffers are awash in oil revenue, having earned more than $300 billion since the 1970s. Wolfsthal noted that other oil-producing nations, such as Iran, have also looked to nuclear energy, as rising global oil prices make the fossil fuel expensive for use at home.Wolfsthal predicted that Nigeria would likely have to shell out somewhere between $1 billion and $2 billion for a single light-water reactor that would have to be contracted out to foreign companies. Meanwhile, the cost of constructing an updated power grid for a population of 130 million and growing rapidly would likely be much higher.Nigeria must also procure the raw uranium needed for refinement in a nuclear reactor. The country does have some uranium deposits, though it is unclear whether they would meet the nation’s growing energy needs.Money issues aside, concerns remain whether a country plagued by government corruption and militancy in the oil-rich Niger Delta can take on the responsibility of building and operating a nuclear power plant.“Trying to tackle something like nuclear energy that requires a lot of political capital and economic is just not on the table at this time,” Mark Schroeder, a Stratfor analyst for sub-Saharan Africa, told UPI.“Nigeria would need long-term political stability to go nuclear, and I don’t see that happening right now,” he said.Meanwhile, Iran is under sanctions for defying United Nations Security Council demands to halt uranium enrichment.It insists that its nuclear programme is peaceful and says it has a right to continue uranium enrichment.Iran, also a major oil producer, is due to bring on stream its first nuclear energy station at Bushehr early in 2009.

Yar'Adua resumes, drops Kingibe

Yar'Adua resumes, drops KingibeAT exactly 2.14 p.m. yesterday, President Umaru Yar’Adua made his first public appearance in 17 days at the Presidential Villa, Abuja to decorate the new Chief of Defence Staff and the Service Chiefs.

DVCF Oil & Gas Fund

N1,000,000,000 Unit Trust Scheme

The Fund

The DVCF one Billion Oil & Gas Fund is an open ended unit Trust Scheme designed to enable investors to pool fund together for investment in the Oil & Gas sector and Venture Capital Finance. The Fund was first launched in October 2006 and was successful. The approval of the offer by the Securities & Exchange Commission in March, 2007, flagged off the investment of the proceeds into projects and to date the fund has recorded a profitable performance.

Purpose
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Objectives

The Oil & Gas Fund is designed to achieve regular income with stable growth in line with the expected performance of the Oil and Gas sector. The income shall be distributed to unit holders at the end of every financial year on January 15 to meet immediate needs that occur frequently after the year. Such as school fees, rentals, salaries, resettlement in new locations and small ticket purchases. The 95% income distribution from the fund is expected to come in handy as a buffer every early part of the year to alleviate the financial burden that subsists after the festive seasons.

Profitable Opportunity
Investors are assured of safety of principal, superior return on investment and a projected rate of at least 25% per annum.

Investors Profile

The Fund welcomes the participation of all Nigerians, companies, associations, other non bank financial institutions, Pension Fund Administrators, Trustees, Ministries of Finance incorporated of State Governments, Companies/Contractors operating direct services to the Oil & Gas sector, NNPC within the ambit of the Local Content Development Fund, Nigeria Petroleum Development Fund, and Banks operating the Small and Medium Enterprises Equity Investment Scheme.

The Fund Manager

DVCF Oil & Gas Plc is the Fund Manager, duly approved by the Securities & Exchange Commission, the Corporate Affairs Commission and the Directorate of Petroleum Resources. The company has shareholders fund of N129 million, project finance turnover of N188 million and fund under management of over N313 million as at August 2007. The Board of the company is constituted under a 15 man team and a management cadre staff with professionals with pooled experience of over a century covering such disciplines as investment banking, law, information technology, international relations, personnel administration, military strategy, environmental planning, mechanical engineering and accounting. Mr. Anthony Eze is the Managing Director/CEO and has over 20 years experience in investment banking He launched the pioneer Energy Master Fund in 2000 and was the pioneer Director Investment Banking/Consumer Banking in International Merchant Bank Plc.


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NIGERIAN NAVY FORM

NIGERIA NAVY FORM FOR RECRUITMENT IS NOW AVAILABLE FROM 28TH APRIL 2008