CentralNIC – Powering the xyz to Google’s abc

Ben Crawford was asleep 12,000 km (7,500 miles) from Google Inc's Mountain View, California headquarters this week when the Internet giant unveiled its new face. Crawford, chief executive of London-based CentralNIC Group Plc, woke up in Sydney to learn that the domain powered by his company – .xyz – would host the website of Google's new company, Alphabet Inc.

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Tinder says founder Sean Rad returning as CEO

(Reuters) – Online dating application Tinder said on Wednesday night that it had re-appointed the app’s founder, Sean Rad, as its chief executive. Rad returns after being replaced in March by former eBay Inc executive Chris Payne CEO. “We mutually determined that this wasn’t going to be optimal and thought that a quick transition served everybody best,” the company statement quoted Payne as saying.

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Amazon quietly shutters product ads that drove traffic to outside sites

By Mari Saito SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc quietly shuttered a pay-per-click advertising programme that allowed businesses to divert traffic from the retailer's platform to their own websites on Tuesday, saying it would permanently discontinue the programme in October. The programme allowed many businesses that are not necessarily sellers on Amazon's online marketplace to buy ad space on its website

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Google overhaul ‘shareholder friendly’ but details scarce

Google Inc's overhaul of its operating structure is an acknowledgement of the lack of transparency surrounding its disparate businesses and projects, analysts said, but it remains to be seen how much more the company will actually disclose. Analysts and investors have long sought more granular detail on Google's capital spending and cash flow, as well as the financial performance of YouTube and Android. Google said on Monday it would split into two reporting companies under a new holding company called Alphabet.

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PayPal to buy digital money transfer provider Xoom

By Mari Saito SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – PayPal Inc said it would buy digital money transfer provider Xoom Corp for $890 million as it muscles into a growing international remittance market and expand in countries like Mexico, India and China ahead of a spinoff from eBay Inc . The offer price of $25 per share in cash represents a premium of about 21 percent to Xoom's Wednesday closing price of $20.70. Xoom shares surged on the announcement and were trading around the offer price in extended trading

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California cancer patient with amnesia faces identity crisis

By Marty Graham SAN DIEGO (Reuters) – A woman with amnesia who has been undergoing cancer treatments since she was found semiconscious in Southern California has turned to social media and law enforcement as she struggles to rekindle memory of her own identity and any family she may have. “The amnesia I have is called retro amnesia, and doctors have said they have seen this before with the kind of antibodies from the volleyball-sized tumor that was on my ovary,” she wrote on her Facebook page.    “I have been getting chemotherapy treatments, and have lost all of my hair ..

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Visa joins MasterCard, AmEx in ending use for Backpage sex ads

By Mary Wisniewski CHICAGO (Reuters) – Visa Inc said on Wednesday it is joining MasterCard Inc and American Express Co in barring its credit cards from being used to pay for ads on Backpage.com following a request from a Chicago sheriff who said the site is used by sex traffickers. Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart said that “escort” ads on Backpage.com and similar classified advertising sites make up the foundation of a sex-trafficking industry that preys on the young and vulnerable. Earlier this week, he asked both Visa and MasterCard to cut off any association with the Backpage.com “adult” section.

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