Fry in Twitter joke jail 'pledge'

15 April 2011 Last updated at 21:46 ET

Comedian Stephen Fry has said he is "prepared to go to prison" over the "Twitter joke" trial.

Fry was appearing at a benefit gig for Paul Chambers who is appealing to the High Court against his conviction for sending a menacing communication.

He had tweeted: "Robin Hood Airport is closed. You've got a week... otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!"

Fry argued that Chambers' tweet was an example of Britain's tradition of self-deprecating humour and banter.

Appeal funds

Chambers' case has become a cause celebre on Twitter, with hundreds of people reposting his original comments in protest at the conviction.

"This [verdict] must not be allowed to stand in law," Fry said, adding that he would continue to repeat Chambers' message and face prison "if that's what it takes".

Among the other celebrities lending their support to the fundraising evening were Al Murray, Rufus Hound, Katy Brand and Father Ted writer Graham Linehan.

Linehan told the audience: "We've got this incredible tool and we should fight any attempt to take it out of our hands."

The benefit gig, at London's Bloomsbury Theatre, aimed to raise funds for Chambers' appeal.

Freedom of speech

The aim of the organisers is that he will not be forced to drop his case because of the possibility he would have to pay the prosecution's legal costs were he to lose.

Few of the stars were prepared to assign wisdom to Chambers' original tweet, however.

Sitting inconspicuously in the stalls, he was variously described as a knucklehead, a nerd and a "donut".

Murray even branded the gig the "Save Paul Chambers from his own stupid destiny event".

But everyone seemed united by a desire to protect freedom of speech or at least the ability to recognise the difference between jokes and menacing terrorist threats.

Chambers' lawyer, David Allen Green, also addressed the audience, briefing them on the key details of his case.

'Speak freely'

Although he was careful not to criticise the courts, he said the decision to find his client guilty "does not make me proud to be an officer of the court".

"We should be able to have banter," he concluded. "We should be able to speak freely without the threat of legal coercion."

Chambers, of Balby, Doncaster, sent the message to his 600 followers in the early hours of 6 January 2010 - he claimed it was in a moment of frustration after Robin Hood Airport in South Yorkshire was closed by snow.

He was found guilty in May 2010 and fined �385 and told to pay �600 costs.

His appeal is likely to go before the High Court later this year.

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Google denies Panda hit on rival

15 April 2011 Last updated at 08:46 ET

Google has defended recent changes to its search system that reduced the prominence of some popular websites.

One of the worst hit by the "Panda" update was Ciao.co.uk, a Microsoft-owned company that had been leading an EU competition case against Google.

Its web visibility fell by 94% according to analysis by Searchmetrics.

Google's head of search evaluation, Scott Huffman, said it was "almost absurd" to suggest that the results were rigged.

The company regularly changes the algorithms that determine what users sees when they search for something.

Rankings

Such updates are often done to weed out "content farms" - websites that copy material from other sites in order to get hits.

Where a keyword search may previously have returned their site on Google's first page, afterwards it may be relegated to further down the rankings.

When the update, known as "Panda", was rolled out on 11 April, Google published a blog post explaining that it was designed to "reduce rankings for low-quality sites-sites which are low-value add for users."

Shopping and price comparison sites such as Ciao.co.uk sometimes suffer when Google algorithms change because they carry comments and reviews replicated elsewhere on the internet.

However, experts said that it was unusual to see a legitimate website hit as badly as Ciao.

"A 94% drop is astronomical," said Sanjay Shelat, a search engine optimisation (SEO) specialist at Edit Optimisation.

"It is very unusual to take such a hit in an update. That is enough to put a company under."

Competition case

Ciao.co.uk was involved involved in initiating an EU investigation into Google in November 2010.

Its parent company, Microsoft claims that the Google has used its dominant position to limit rivals' products.

The BBC asked Microsoft if it thought the current downgrading of Ciao results was related to the legal action, Microsoft said it would not be commenting on the situation "at this time".

When questioned by news agency AFP, Google's Scott Huffman said: "If you think of the scale of what we are talking about, it is almost absurd to say we could rig results."

Mr Huffman pointed-out that the update had received a very positive response from Google users.

Search visibility

Searchmetrics analysed Google results in response to a range of keywords, both before and after the Panda update.

Alongside Ciao's 94% reduction in visibility, it found that hubpages.com fell by 85% and eHow.co.uk dropped 53%.

A Similar analysis by Sistrix found a 81% drop in visibility for Ciao.co.uk, 72% reduction for hubpages.com and an 84% fall for eHow.co.uk.

While a sharp drop in visibility may constitute a crisis for some websites and their search engine optimisation (SEO) engineers, it does not necessarily spell disaster.

Technology news website Electricpig.co.uk was downgraded by 94% by the Panda update, according to Searchmetrics.

Site editor James Holland told BBC News: "We haven't seen an immediate impact.

"Comparing our traffic from Google for that week, we're actually only down 0.5% versus the week before Panda took effect.

"That suggests most of the keywords Searchmetrics are measuring us against weren't being clicked anyway, and our best-performing stuff is still doing the business."

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Google prospers under new leader

14 April 2011 Last updated at 16:47 ET

Internet giant Google has reported a sharp rise in first-quarter earnings, the first figures with co-founder Larry Page back at the helm as boss.

The world's leading search engine reported $6.54bn (�4bn) in net revenue in the first quarter, up 29% from $5.06bn the same time a year ago.

Google has about a 65% share of the US search engine market and about 90% in Europe.

The firm said it would continue "to invest for the long term".

Announcing the results, Patrick Pichette, Google chief finance officer, said: "These results demonstrate the value of search and search ads to our users and customers, as well as the extraordinary potential of areas like display and mobile."

UK revenues shrink

During the quarter, paid clicks - which measures the number of times people click on Google ads that are sponsored by the advertisers - rose by 18%.

Meanwhile, average cost-per-click for its search advertisements increased by about 8% on the same quarter 12 months earlier, and decreased about 1% from the fourth quarter of 2010.

However, on some measures Google came in below analysts' expectations.

Revenues from the UK were $969m, representing 11% of income in the first quarter of 2011, against 13% in the first quarter of 2010.

The firm has been engaged on a staff hiring spree, looking to employ more than 6,000 workers this year, but that has been driving up its costs.

"Clearly the company is still in growth mode and for Google that means spending too," said Jordan Rohan, analyst at financial services firm Stifel Nicolaus.

He said Google was spending on sales and marketing, and "they've hired 1,900 more people this quarter, which might be a new high".

In trading of its shares after the New York Stock Market closed, Google stock fell by 4% to $553.09.

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