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INTERNATIONAL EDITIONS: HIGHLIGHTS AND EXCLUSIVES NOV. 5, 2007 ISSUE

COVER: Google. Takedown? (All overseas editions). Special Correspondent David H. Freedman reports that there is a global effort underway to invent a better way of finding things on the Web, which means Google is more vulnerable than imagined. It is threatened by a massive worldwide effort to build a better search, involving giant high-tech rivals, governments in Europe and Asia, and hundreds of tiny start-ups founded by academic wunderkinds. Despite spending billions trying to diversify beyond the straightforward search offered, Google’s success continues to hinge on the dominance of its simple search and there are no guarantees that dominance will last.

 http://www.newsweek.com/id/62254

Embracing the Personal and Trivial. Special Correspondent B.J. Lee reports that in South Korea, millions of people visit Naver—launched in 2002—the country’s biggest Web portal to search. Naver has developed a unique search engine that is designed to answer any question, no matter how personal or trivial. The expertise comes from Naver’s 28 million users.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/62262 

Building Search From Scratch. Special Correspondent Akiko Kashiwagi reports that Japan has always prided itself on being a technology leader, so it rankled that outsiders—Americans all—dominate the local market for Web search. Yahoo is first, followed by Google and MSN, with Japan’s Goo and BiGlobe trailing behind. This situation has apparently triggered many urgent meetings at Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, which last April, launched a three-year campaign to rectify it by developing Japan’s own search technology.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/62263

Ad Sales On The Eastern Front. Moscow Bureau Chief Owen Matthews reports that like many foreign invaders before it, Google’s advance on Eastern Europe has floundered in the difficult terrain of Russia. Poland fell to Google without much of a fight, as have most European markets. Yet the Russian Internet, with its Cyrillic script and 30 million users, has proved tough. Although Google opened in Moscow in 2005, it only gets about 15 percent of Russian searches.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/62261

What You Like. Assistant Editor Jessica Bennett reports that entrepreneurs and Internet firms are trying to make search for personalized information easier by extending the wiki model of collaboration. Hundreds of social search sites are groping for a winning formula, but none have been able to develop a critical mass of users. The ultimate goal is to combine the personalized information of, say, Facebook with the lightning-fast technology of the biggest search engines.

 http://www.newsweek.com/id/62265

A Princeling of the People. Beijing Bureau Chief Melinda Liu and Special Correspondent Jonathan Ansfield report on the rise of Xi Jingping, who has emerged as the front runner to become China’s most powerful man. That he rose so fast to the top speaks volumes about the changing nature of Chinese party politics. He is known for his free-market prowess and his carefully cultivated down-home image began to win over top leaders.

 http://www.newsweek.com/id/62256

‘It’s Not a Silver Bullet.’ Biologist Chris Somerville, director of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Plant Biology at Stanford University, shares in the optimism placed on the potential of biofuels as an affordable clean-energy solution. On whether biofuels will get us out of the energy trap, he says, “It’s not a silver bullet. We need a broad basket of solutions. But it certainly can be important—if we could obtain 1 percent solar efficiency on 1 percent of the land in the world, that would be enough to provide all transportation fuels, or about 20 percent of our total energy use.”

 http://www.newsweek.com/id/62308

Media Meccas. Special Correspondent Emily Flynn Vencat reports that entertainment is the latest industry to benefit from a recent outpouring of Middle Eastern money. Gambling and strip clubs may be forbidden by Islamic law, but Arab investors have spent at least $10 billion on top Vegas and Hollywood brands in the last year. The investments are part of long-term plans to build international entertainment hubs for tourists and the domestic market alike.  

 http://www.newsweek.com/id/62258

It’s Not About The West. Moscow Bureau Chief Owen Matthews reports that not just in Iraq, but all along its Eastern borders, Turkey is forging ties with its neighbors—Syria, Iraq and Iran—independent of its wobbling but better-known alliances with Europe and the United States. Turkish backlash against the West remains a serious danger—and not just for narrow reasons of Mideast diplomacy.

 http://www.newsweek.com/id/62255

The Golden Hordes. Special Correspondent Stephen Glain reports that China’s surprisingly steely retail investors are snapping up billions of dollars of foreign assets. According to Zhou Xiaochuan, China’s current central-bank governor, to diversify is imperative, encouraging China’s legions of individual investors to start spreading their savings abroad.

 http://www.newsweek.com/id/62259

Inside Europe’s Sausage Factory. London Reporter William Underhill reports that after 50 years of rule making, power is shifting away from the unaccountable bureaucrat in the European Union. A new reform treaty, agreed upon by EU leaders in October, awards greater authority to the directly elected European Parliament. It’s one more step toward democracy and a step away by rule of bureaucracy. 

 http://www.newsweek.com/id/62266

THE GOOD LIFE: Gone Fishing. Special Correspondent Jenna Crombie reports that fly-fishing holidays provide the perfect chance to cast away the stresses of daily life. Hotels and travel companies are offering packages that allow guests to get back to the simpler things in life during the day while enjoying luxury dining and accommodations by night.

 http://www.newsweek.com/id/62270

WORLD VIEW: The Power of Petroleum. Robin West, chairman of PFC Energy, writes that record-high oil prices have dramatically shifted the balance of global power. The huge financial windfalls have some important upsides for oil-producing nations and the world at large. Yet even as oil has greased global capitalism, it has hindered democracy. Governments with large oil receipts need less consent from the governed to stay in power.

 http://www.newsweek.com/id/62268

THE LAST WORD: United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The low-key former South Korean foreign minister is still figuring out where he can make his mark, tackling some of the world’s most complex problems. “What humbles me are the very high expectations for the whole of the United Nations and particularly for the secretary-general … The United Nations is so limited in terms of resources, and by all these complex systems that have accumulated over six decades. Simplifying, rationalizing, deregulating them will be a serious challenge.”         

 http://www.newsweek.com/id/62267