Microsoft's Revamped Search Engine

AOL and Time Warner say their sorrowful goodbyes, AT&T is coveting the Palm Pre, and we get a closer look at Microsoft's revamped search engine.

Microsoft's Revamped Search Engine Natali Del Conte: AOL and Time Warner finally part ways. AT&T is covering the Palm Pre and we get an exclusive look at Microsoft’s Kumo. It’s Thursday, May 28. I'm Natali Del Conte and it’s time to get loaded. The dream is over Time Warner announced this morning that it will be spinning off its AOL division by the end of the year. AOL has never really been able to do much under the Time Warner umbrella. It was purchase at the peak of its popularity in 2001 for $147 billion. Last year it’s a 20% drop in revenue which is a big fat ouch. If AOL gets out on its own maybe it can reinvent itself and get out from under its dialup reputation. It know that’s a big maybe but you never know. We’ve heard a lot about Microsoft’s out coming search engine Kumo. CNET news’ Ina Fried got an exclusive chance to take a closer look. Male: For the moment I'm going to call it Kumo since I actually don’t know what the new brand name is as I'm filming this but basically this is the successor to live search that Microsoft has been working on for some time. Some of the biggest changes have to do with the way searches are organized once you’ve type in a query. So here I’ve type in apple iPod and it’s broken down into a number of categories. So that query is then broken down into a number of related things that you might be looking for. The different categories are all listed. You can either click on those on the left hand navigation or then the results themselves are organized into different categories. So if I type in flights from SFO to Maui and it will pull up a number of different things using a company that Microsoft bought called Farecast to predict actually not just what flights cost now but also offer you an educated guess as to whether are likely to get more expensive, cheaper or stay the same. We got an early chance to play around with Kumo but the general public has to wait just a little bit longer. It’s probably coming out in the next couple of weeks. Natali Del Conte: AT&T is promising AV Fear Network a pronto so says a press release that I am highly doubtful about. It said that the network is slated for upgrades to the HSPA 7.2 Network that will start now and be completed in 2011. This is all 3G though the company only plans on testing a 4G Network by way of LTE in 2010 with possible deployment in 2011. As far as I know this is the first time AT&T has really said this much about its 4G plans. In other AT&T news the carrier may not be content with being the exclusive carrier for the iPhone in the US. Yesterday at the D7 Conference AT&T CEO Randal Stevenson said that he would love to have the Palm Pre on his network. He said “Would I like to see the Pre on our network someday? Of course I would” obviously we talked to all the handset manufacturers we won a broad selection of the vices in the lineup. He will have to sit and wait a while though. Palms agreement with Sprint precludes other carriers. Google Earth has becoming the bit more like Google Maps with business listings. If you activate the businesses layer in Google Earth on iPhone or on your desktop you can find local listings for restaurants, bar, banks whatever. If you click on the icon you’ll get all the logistics, you get in Google Maps, phone numbers, hours, reviews etcetera. It seems like a lot of work to go too launching a desktop client just to get info in your local Walgreen’s but it’s handy if you're already there. This may sound like a bit of legal E’s but Digg has upgraded the license for all of its content to Creative Commons Zero. For those of you, who are not lawyers so that means that all of Diggs content including titles, descriptions and comments are now public domain internationally. Previously the companies terms and use made the content free for anyone in the US to use but the new conditions allow anyone on the planet to use Digg’s content however they zip it, so how about it? We have a couple of Apple stories today. The company announced an update to the white MacBook it’s merely a speed bum from two gigahertz to 2.13 gigahertz and the hard drive has increased from 120 gigs to 160 gigs. The company also announced it will be bringing back the iPod with the Mac promotion for students. If you buy a MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air or iMac you'll get a free eight gig iPod Touch or a voucher for up to $170.00 of other iPod products. And speaking of iPod there's a rumor floating around that the new iPod Nano will feature a built-in camera and an extra wide screen. No idea what the camera will be used for just yet but it does seem that the company is looking for ways to innovate in the music player space especially given the fact that the upcoming Zune is so sexy. Next week, is the E3 gaming conference. I will be covering the show in Los Angeles with CBS New Correspondent Daniel Sieberg for the CBS early show. In my absence here in loaded, Mark Licea will be stepping in for me once again. You can follow along with E3 adventures over Twitter. Also Brian Tong will be covering the show for CNET TV. Before I sign off today I want to wish a happy birthday to Nick, Matt, Michael, Josh, Andrew and Joseph. Those are all your headlines for today and I will see you next week at E3. Thank you for watching, I'm Natali Del Conti with CNET TV and you’ve just been loaded.