Google claims entire Internet is badware

In today's podcast: Google claims entire Internet is badware; Intel sues insurance company over antitrust legal fees; and with Qimonda down, DRAM prices spike

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Human error caused a glitch that returned the message "this site may harm your computer" for all Google search results for about an hour Saturday morning .Google works with a nonprofit organization that runs the site StopBadware.org to obtain a list of URLs that are known to install malicious software if users go to those sites. StopBadware researches complaints regarding sites and decides which URLs should be on the warning list, so "since each case needs to be individually researched, th3 list is maintained by humans, not algorithms," according to an official Google blog post that was credited to Marissa Mayer, the company's vice president of Search Products & User Experience. Mayer apologized in her post to anyone who was inconvenienced by the glitch and to site owners whose pages were incorrectly labeled as being malicious.

Intel filed a lawsuit against an insurer over failure to cover legal fees on an antitrust lawsuit filed by rival chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices. In the suit, filed last week and amended on Wednesday, Intel accused the American Guarantee and Liability Insurance Company of breach of contract for failing to provide a defense fund to fight an antitrust case filed by AMD and related cases filed by other entities. The insurance company was obligated to cover "reasonable" costs related to the litigations, but failed to do so even though Intel provided related legal documents, Intel said in court documents. Intel is seeking US$50 million and additional damages from the insurance company.

DRAM chip prices spiked last week over supply concerns after chip maker Qimonda filed for bankruptcy protection in Germany, and prices will likely continue to climb. he price of the most popular 1Gb chip rose as much as 16 percent compared to a week earlier, Gartner said. DRAM prices across all capacities increased 8.7 percent on average compared to a week earlier. The biggest spot market for DRAM is in China, where the bulk of the world's desktops and laptops are assembled. But last week was a public holiday for China and much of the rest of Asia, where people celebrate the Lunar New Year. When traders in the region return to work on Monday, they may send prices higher.

Advanced Micro Devices will soon introduce processors that are capable of supporting DDR3 memory, earlier than the company had anticipated. The company in the next few weeks will launch new processors targeted at desktops that will include DDR3-capable memory controllers, said John Taylor, an AMD spokesman. Taylor declined comment on specific processors being launched, though a leaked road map suggests the launch of new Phenom II and triple-core processors. The support for DDR3 memory comes earlier than anticipated. Late last year the company said it aimed to add DDR3-capable Phenom II processors by the middle of 2009, but could push that up depending on factors including pricing of the memory.

…And those are the top stories from the IDG Global IT News Update, brought to you by the IDG News Service. I’m Sumner Lemon in Singapore. Join us again later for more news from the world of technology.