VeriSign stands firm

VeriSign, which enjoys a US government-granted monopoly over the .com registry, says it won`t stop pointing unassigned domain names at its Web site, despite charges of unfair competition, reports BusinessWeek.

During the last week, criticism has steadily grown over VeriSign`s "SiteFinder" service, which has "caused problems for network administrators and confused spam-blocking utilities", the publication reports. A number of Internet standards bodies have asked it to stop, and a second lawsuit seeking an injunction against the practice was filed yesterday.

Google is experimenting with search results tailored to searchers` geographic location, following a similar move by rival Overture Services, reports CNet. The company this week said Google Labs, its R&D arm, unveiled a program that allows typing in a search term, along with address or postal code, to find Web results and a miniature map from within the area.

Local search and advertising has been pegged in the financial community as a massive opportunity for major portals and search providers, the news service states.

Dell has unveiled a server bundled with Windows, targeted at small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The company has said its new PowerEdge 400 SC server would come with preinstalled Windows Small Business Server 2003 software and would cost around $1 000, reports CNet.

Research firm IDC has predicted that the SME segment will account for 53% of the growth in IT spending this year.

For the first time, global sales of camera-enabled mobile handsets surpassed sales of conventional digital cameras, in the first half of 2003. Mobile Commerce World reports that results reported by market intelligence firm Strategy Analytics show that mobile phone makers shipped 25 million handsets with built-in cameras in the first half of the year, compared with four million in the year-earlier period.

In the same time frame, shipments of conventional digital cameras, the fastest-growing segment of the traditional camera market, doubled to 20 million in the first half, the firm said.

NEC, Matsushita and Nokia were the top three suppliers of camera phones, with 15% each of the market for the first two companies, and 14% for Nokia.