31 January: Five Stories You Need to Read

Slashdot reports that "Microsoft beat out Johnson & Johnson for the top spot in the annual Wall Street Journal survey of the reputations of U.S. companies.”

According to CNetNews.com, “Google, Yahoo and Microsoft representatives on Tuesday implored the U.S. government to help set ground rules for complying with demands by foreign law enforcement agencies for user records or censorship.”

The International Herald Tribune points out that “Yahoo says […] it plans to build individual Web sites around 100 entertainment ‘brands’ this year that would pull together content from Yahoo's sprawling array of online properties.”

Yahoo! News predicts that “Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system could provide PC makers with a boost in their average selling prices.”

According to Networkworld, Microsoft said in statement on Tuesday that "[f]ollowing discussions with [the] European Commission, Microsoft committed to make a number of changes to the Windows Vista operating system prior to release", pointing to three functions of the OS: security, search and fixed document formats.