$57.0 billion
Source: Microsoft

#2 Warren Buffett

$50.0 billion
Source: Berkshire Hathaway

#3 Lawrence Ellison

$27.0 billion
Source: Oracle

#4 Jim Walton

$23.4 billion
Source: Wal-Mart

#5 S Robson Walton

$23.3 billion
Source: Wal-Mart

#6 Alice Walton

$23.2 billion
Source: Wal-Mart

#7 Christy Walton & family

$23.2 billion
Source: Wal-Mart inheritance

#8 Michael Bloomberg

$20.0 billion
Source: Bloomberg

#9 Charles Koch

$19.0 billion
Source: manufacturing, energy

#10 David Koch

$19.0 billion
Source: manufacturing, energy

Read rest of the story and view the list of The 400 Richest Americans

India continues to retain the number one position as the most sought-after destination for companies globally for investing and outsourcing. The country is home to as many as six of the world’s top eight outsourcing hubs viz Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune with two more.

China has no representation in the world’s top eight outsourcing cities. However, China dominates the list of emerging cities for global outsourcing with Shanghai and Beijing leading the list.

One of the names in the top 8 global outsourcing cities is that of Dublin, Ireland. In recent years Ireland has seen a large no. of outsourcing deals, both in number and size, in relation to the economy.

Mataki from Philipines also makes its place in the top 8 global outsourcing cities. Philippines has been trying to position itself as the next major global outsourcing destination, in competition with India and China. The country is aiming to get a 10 per cent share of the $130 billion global market.

SRC: Indiatimes Infotech

Google, which has built on its dominance in internet searches to expand into software, video, mapping and web browsing, was “the undisputed king of the internet world”, and its brand value had shot up by 43 per cent, from 21.9 billion dollars to 31.5 billion dollars.

To qualify for inclusion in the Best Global Brands 2008 list, each brand must derive at least a third of its earnings outside its home country, be recognizable outside of its base of customers, and have publicly available marketing and financial data.

The top ten brands, according to the “Best Global Brands 2008″ list are:

1. Coca-Cola
2. IBM
3. Microsoft
4. GE
5. Nokia
6. Toyota
7. Intel
8. McDonald’s
9. Disney
10. Google.

“The fact that the rich are not getting richer means that the economy is locked,” said Matthew Miller, editor of the Forbes list. “Credit is not being extended, there is very little liquidity in the markets and deals can’t get done, so the economy contracts.”

Investor Warren Buffett came in at number 2 with an estimated personal wealth of $50 billion, down from an estimated $52 billion last year, followed in third place by Oracle Corp founder Larry Ellison, who is said to be worth $27 billion by Forbes.

Gates, Buffett and Larry Ellison are followed by Jim Walton (USD 23.4 billion), S Robson Waltton (USD 23.3 billion), Alice Walton (USD 23.2 billion) and Cristy Walton and family (USD 23.2 billion) of Wal-Mart, Michael Bloomberg (USD 20 billion), Charles Koch (USD 19 billion) and David Koch (USD 19 billion) in the top ten.

Yahoo embraced its planned advertising partnership with Google amid reports that it had revived talks about a possible deal with Microsoft. The report, based information from unnamed people, surfaced despite Yahoo’s repeated rejection of the software giant since their intense mating dance began nearly five months ago.

Although Yahoo’s letter didn’t completely rule out a Microsoft deal, it stressed that working with Google remains the best option on the table.

Source : Indiatimes Infotech

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This Wraparound Gaming Monitor by Alienware was a prototype displayed at CES 2008 expo. It supports a max Res of 2880×900. This sample appears bleak and washed out. However, the commercial models which will be out later would hopefully live upto the gamer’s dream.

Microsoft, Yahoo!, and Google have agreed to pay a total amount of $31.5 million towards settlement of a case alleging that the companies are guilty of promoting online gambling.

Microsoft will pay a total of $21 million consisting of,
$7.5 million as a charitable donation for Missing and Exploited Children
$4.5 million to the US government
$9 million towards a 3 yr public service campaign to warn youngsters about illegal online gambling.

Yahoo! will pay $3million to the US government and $4.5 million towards the public service campaign.

Google will pay $3 million to the government

In a statement posted on the Facebook blog, Mr Zuckerberg said: “We’ve made a lot of mistakes building this feature, but we’ve made even more with how we’ve handled them.

“We simply did a bad job with this release, and I apologise for it.”

Google did store the thumbnails but argued that image thumbnails were protected under the copyright doctrine of fair use.

Now a court has also said that using thumbnail-sized images of pictures does not constitute infringement, even when the images are copyrighted.