Gadget prices drop

US consumer electronics prices dropped in November as retailers slashed prices before the festive season. NPD Consumer Electronics Price Watch believes these declines could accelerate this year as Asian manufacturers increase production.

Prices fell 6.2% in November from October, the biggest decline in 2004, and were down 18.3% from a year earlier, reports Reuters.

Forecasts from Asian manufacturers of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) indicate prices could stay weak in the early part of 2005, as output of the screens increases.

LG.Philips LCD recently said LCD prices could drop 10% to 20% in the first half of this year.

Fewer than one in six users of Internet search engines can tell the difference between unbiased search results and paid advertisements, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

Associated Press reports that the survey found that adults online in the US are generally na"ive when it comes to how search engines work.

Google marks these ads as sponsored links, Yahoo terms them sponsor results and Microsoft MSN uses sponsored sites. Such ads are placed to the right and on top of the regular search results, in some cases highlighted in a different colour.

But only 38% of Web searchers even know of the distinction, and of those, not even half say they can always tell which are paid-for. This means only 18% of all Web searchers know when a link is paid-for.

Internet search engine Ask Jeeves is developing wireless search services to be launched later this year, reports IDG News Service.

"In search today you have to offer several access points to provide a good search service for consumers, so we believe we have to be there in wireless search," says Daniel Read, VP of product management at Ask Jeeves.

The company is also busy developing a search service focused on digital music. It believes there is a market for these services, as users need help finding and retrieving music files on different platforms.