The Next Web

Microsoft buys Ciao.com’s mother company, will it plug its products?

Written on August 29, 2008 – 10:46 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

The folks in Redmond have recovered from their unsuccessful attempt to buy Yahoo and are, once again, on a buying spree. Microsoft is about to acquire web-based survey company Greenfield Online for $486 million.

This acquisition gives Microsoft access to Ciao.com, a popular price comparison and consumer reviews site in Europe. Of course this immediately brings up questions about whether Ciao.com’s validity stays in tact. What if Microsoft plugs it Xbox games a little too much in the video games section?

It definitely looks like Microsoft gets particularly excited about Ciao.com, as it will sell of Greenfield Online’s main business, namely the Internet survey solutions, to an unknown buyer. Reuters reports that this part of the company accounts for about 75 percent of Greenfield Online’s overall revenue.

With major companies like Microsoft and Google buying media outlets, the validity of formerly trustworthy tools like search machines and comparisons sites becomes doubtful. I earlier reported about Google ranking its own content higher in the search results (i.e. Knol above Yahoo! Answers), the same might be happening with Ciao.com.

Hopefully, these developments might spur an anti major media company sentiment. While we’ve agreed with multinationals buying news papers (Murdoch et al), it may be easier to develop alternatives to sites like Ciao.com. Will “has no mother company” become a popular marketing slogan?

I hope you like that post!

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google, Knol, Microsoft, video game, World Wide Web, xbox, yahoo, Yahoo Answers

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Thailand bans Grand Theft Auto after teenage gamer goes nuts

Written on August 5, 2008 – 4:01 pm
Robin Wauters, Next web enthusiast & Plugg organizer

New Era Interactive Media, a Thai video game distributor, froze sales of Grand Theft Auto after a teenage gamer confessed to robbing and murdering a taxi driver while trying to recreate a scene from the controversial game. The 18-year-old high school student is currently in custody, charged with robbing and stabbing to death the 54-year-old taxi driver, and faces the death penalty.

“We are sending out requests today to outlets and shops to pull the games off their shelves and we will replace them with other games,” Sakchai Chotikachinda, sales and marketing director of New Era Interactive Media, told Reuters.

Police said the gamer was an obsessive GTA fan who confessed to committing the crime because of the game and showed no sign of mental problems during questioning. He told police he did not mean to kill the driver, but that he stabbed him to death when he fought back, newspapers reported.

Grand Theft Auto has often been criticized for depicting violence including beatings, carjackings, drive-by shootings, drunk driving and prostitution.

According to the Reuters story, a multi-million dollar lawsuit was filed in the U.S. state of Alabama against the designers, marketers and a retailer of Grand Theft Auto in 2005, claiming that months of playing the game led a teenager to kill two police officers and a 911 dispatcher.

Personally, I think these are extremely isolated cases who do not prove that violence in video games incites violence in real life. I wonder if anyone has ever made any connections between recent bombings, beatings, animal abuse etc. and this Tom & Jerry clip. Have you, Jack Thompson?

Sure, there should be some control over the type and degree of violence that’s depicted in video games, but actually linking criminal behavior to the content of the game? That’s just a bridge too far in my humble opinion.

What’s your opinion?

grand theft auto, New Era Interactive Media, thailand, video game, violence

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