US media giant has declared war on GooTube by suing Google for $1billion, accusing the company of “massive intentional copyright infringement” for allowing its users to upload clips of its shows. Previously, Viacom had asked Google to remove more than 100,000 clips from programmes such as The Daily Show, South Park and SpongeBob SquarePants.

Google also made an important announcement regarding online privacy this week. The company said it would erase huge amounts of personal information on internet searches. Under the new policy, all identifying data will be anonymised after 18-24 months – a move that has been welcomed by various privacy bodies.

In other news, controversial usability guru Jakob Nielsen made headlines when the Online Journalism Review reported that his eyetracking research led to the revelation that men focus on genital areas and faces in photos on the web, including the private parts of animals . Women, on the other hand, concentrate on faces.

Have a great weekend!

Christian, staff writer .net