Pacific Internet launches ‘clean feed’

ASIA Pacific services provider Pacific Internet has launched a business grade “clean feed” content filtering system that restricts employee access to web sites that pose a security or productivity risk.

The service, launched in partnership with MailGuard and called PacNet CleanWeb, is tailored for the business and government markets.

Pacific Internet senior vice-president Dennis Muscat said the company had previously partnered with MailGuard to launch its PacNet CleanMail service a year ago.

“We’re aware of the vulnerability many businesses face with staff increasingly accessing the web for social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace,” Mr Muscat said.

“This is a threat to organisations both from a security and a productivity perspective.”

CleanWeb helps manage staff productivity and protect the organisation from malicious attacks via the web, as well as potential litigation due to web browsing abuse.

PacNet CleanWeb provides management, control and reporting of the internet web browsing resource in organisations. The service protects networks and systems against web-based threats.

“PacNet CleanWeb gives businesses the opportunity to manage what their users are actually doing,” Mr Muscat said.

“Administrators simply use the console to manage access to the web by user, file types, key words and sites by individual, group or company wide rules as required.”

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Google Oz snares old-school media exec

GOOGLE has looked to the ranks of mainstream traditional media to fill its Australia-New Zealand general manager position, appointing a former Fairfax magazine specialist.

Google announced Karim Temsamani had been appointed GM for the NAZ markets, managing the search giant’s domestic business and strategic partnerships.

Mr Temsamani was most recently a group director at Fairfax General Magazines, responsible for growing the profile and advertising revenue of Fairfax's suite of inserted magazines, and commercial director for Newspapers – responsible for agency and group sales, trade marketing and business development.

Prior to this he was publisher and vice-president of Who Weekly at Time Inc South Pacific from 1999 to 2002.

Google South Asia regional director Richard Kimber said Temsamani would focus on continuing to build our sales and operations team and developing Google's strategic relationships with industry partners.

Mr Temsamani said the company was committed to increasing its investment in Australia and New Zealand.

“Google is investing significantly in our team in Australia, as Australian consumers and businesses navigate the growing online world,” Mr Temsamani wrote on the company blog.

“Behind the scenes, there's a large team here that is working to ensure that you get access to the latest Google products, and that we continually improve our existing products,” he wrote.

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Google loses battle for German Gmail

A DAVID and Goliath story with a technology flavour has played out in a Hamburg court, with search giant Google losing a legal battle to win the right to use the brand "Gmail" for its online mail service in Germany.

A regional court in the northern city of Hamburg upheld a claim by a local businessman who said he had been using the name “G-Mail” for an electronic mail service he had been developing since 2000 – years before Google launched its hugely popular global mail service.

The court said Google may not use the Gmail brand in Germany. Google had sued the entrepreneur in an effort to have him stop using the name.

It is not yet clear whether Google will appeal the decision, which culminated a three year legal battle. The entrepreneur also has suits pending against him in Switzerland, Portugal and Spain.

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