Big losses for Merkel in German state elections

Berlin (CNN) -- A political shift of historic proportions is unfolding in Germany as preliminary state election results indicate big losses for Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Party, CDU. The CDU now seems poised to lose a major stronghold to a Green Party-led coalition in a key state. Green Party members were celebrating a major triumph Sunday in the prosperous southwestern state of Baden-Wurtternberg, ruled by the CDU since 1953 and home to 11 million people. Early results showed that Merkel's party won 39% of the popular vote in Baden-Wurttermberg but failed to gain a majority. The Greens, which won 24.2% of the votes, are expected to form a coalition with the Social Democrats, which polled 23%. This will be the first time a liberal Green Party premier will be elected in Baden-Wurtternberg, known for its conservative, pro-business voting practices। http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/03/27/germany.elections/index.html

Marketers embracing QR codes, for better or worse

CNN) -- A confused crossword puzzle. A psychedelic postage stamp. A bar code on drugs. This is how a QR, or Quick Response, code may appear to most people. You may have noticed these black-and-white squares showing up in subway ads or in pages of magazines. Thanks to our growing addiction to our smartphones, you'll likely be seeing more of them. QR codes are showing up in more and more places: posters, storefront window displays, TV advertisements, business cards, websites and even on T-shirts। When accessed with your phone, a QR code takes you to a landing page where you'll usually find special promotional content http://edition.cnn.com/2011/TECH/mobile/03/28/qr.codes.marketing/index.html

Yahoo debuts 'future of search'

(WIRED) -- Yahoo is looking to one-up Google and its own search partner Bing, offering a new search experience it describes as the "fastest thing you have ever seen."

The new product called Search Direct combines instant search -- showing results as you type -- with instant answers, so that typing in "amzn" instantly shows a full box with stock quotes about Amazon.com. For searches it has no answer to, it shows search links immediately in an easy-to-navigate box above a typical search-results page.

Yahoo, which looked to have abandoned the search game when it outsourced its search backend to Microsoft, says Search Direct -- and its emphasis on user experience -- is the future of search.

"I want you to remember three words: 'answers, not links,'" Shashi Seth, Yahoo's vice president for search told a room of tech reporters in San Francisco as he demo'd the product.

Search Direct is live on search.yahoo.com and other U.S. Yahoo search properties, but not the homepage yet. The same experience will soon come to all search boxes on Yahoo, Seth said, and it will find its way to non-Yahoo properties as well.

The product has "answers" for 15 categories of entities, including movies, professional athletes, music, celebrities, weather info, news, shopping, local and stocks.

The new search builds on Yahoo's attempt to stay relevant in the lucrative search market by focusing on user experience, now that it has farmed out the expensive infrastructure to Microsoft, in exchange for ad-revenue sharing.

"People still come to Yahoo and search on Yahoo," said Yahoo chief product officer Blake Irving।
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/TECH/web/03/24/yahoo.future.wired/index.html

Corruption hits China's high-speed railway

FT) -- Investigators have found evidence that nearly $30m of funds budgeted for China's Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail line was misappropriated last year, in another blow to the country's scandal-plagued high-speed rail sector.

China's state audit office said on Wednesday it had identified numerous cases of embezzlement and other irregularities from just a three-month period of construction on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed line last year and has passed the cases on to judicial authorities for formal investigation.

China's railway minister and the rail ministry's deputy chief engineer were both removed from their positions last month for "severe disciplinary violations" -- an allegation that usually results in criminal charges for corruption.

The former minister, Liu Zhijun, is the most senior government official to be implicated in corruption in the past five years and his downfall has raised doubts about the future of the hugely ambitious high-speed rail expansion plans he championed
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/BUSINESS/03/24/china.corruption.speed.rail.ft/index.html