Ben Yvonne

Google Shuts Down Five Products

Google has announced to shut down five products which are not core to its business.

Among the five products to be axed, the most famous are iGoogle, the search giants personalized homepage service and Google Video.

iGoogle will be axed on November 1, 2013, giving users 16 months to adjust or export their data, said Google in its official blog on July 1, 2012. It said that with todays web and mobile apps, the need for iGoogle has eroded over time.

For Google Video, which stopped taking uploads in May 2009, its remaining hosted content will be moved to YouTube this summer and users need to migrate, delete or download their content before August 20, 2012.

The other services getting axed are Google Mini, part of Googles enterprise search products since 2005; Google Talk Chatback which allows websites to embed a Google Talk widget to chat with visitors and Symbian Search App.

US Files Complaint over China Car Duties at WTO

The United States filed a complaint to the World Trade Organization(WTO) against China over its anti?dumping(反傾銷的) and countervailing duties(反補貼稅) over US?made autos.

Chinas Permanent Mission(長駐代表團) to WTO confirmed that it had received the consultation request and said China would handle it in accordance with the WTO rules.

Chinas Ministry of Commerce(MOC) started to impose anti?dumping and countervailing duties on imports of US cars and SUVs with an engine capacity of 2.5 liters or larger in December, 2011, following an open investigation in accordance with the WTO rules and upon petitions from domestic enterprises.

China has since levied anti?dumping tariffs from two percent to 21.5 percent, and imposed countervailing duties of up to 12.9 percent according to the level of subsidy US carmakers received from their government, both of which will expire on December 14, 2013.

The US latest move was the third time that the Obama Administration had challenged Chinas trade remedies, said US Trade Representative Ron Kirk. In two earlier cases, the US challenged duties that China had imposed to restrict imports of certain steel products and chicken products.