With the economy in the shape it’s in, even Microsoft and Google are thinking twice before dropping $100 million on a new datacenter. But the two tech giants are easing off the funding pedal for different reasons.

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) has delayed breaking ground on a planned Oklahoma datacenter by 12 to 18 months, and appears to be going a little slower with a planned North Carolina center. It decided to pass on a $4.7 million state grant to build a data center in the town of Lenoir, N.C.

In the case of Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), a source close to the construction of its planned Chicago, Ill. datacenter said work has been scaled back and many modular containers being used at the site are just being parked but not hooked up. Also, the company has yet to begin construction on a West Des Moines, Iowa datacenter despite announcing it with much fanfare last year.

It’s no surprise such projects would be delayed. Datacenters are about the most expensive capital project a company can undertake. A raised floor datacenter costs between $1,000 to $2,000 per square foot, making it the most expensive piece of real estate for almost any organization, according to Enterprise Management Associates. The cost of a five megawatt data center build-out can easily surpass $100 million.

Microsoft has publicly said it is cutting back datacenter expenses. On the last quarterly conference call to discuss the first fiscal quarter of 2009, CFO Chris Liddell said Microsoft would trim capital investments by $300 million, and he specifically said it would be on the datacenter side.

"We will probably also slow our growth in some of the facilities just by virtue of not having as many people as were expected as well. But that’s likely to be more of an FY 2010 phenomenon," said Liddell.

NEW DELHI: Internet search giant Google has won a cybersquatting case at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) against an Indian who had tried to block the domain name ‘googblog.com’.

According to the information available with the WIPO, Geneva-based WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center has ordered the transfer of domain name to the US-based search giant after Herit Shah of Gujarat offered to surrender the disputed name to Google.

Google had challenged the registering of domain name ‘googblog.com’ by Shah at WIPO stating that it was confusingly similar to its trademark on which the company has rights.

Cybersquatting is an illegal activity of buying and officially recording an address on the internet that is the name of an existing company or a well-known person, with the intention of selling it to the owner in order to make money.

As per the information available with the WIPO, Google filed the complaint against Shah on March 26 this year. However, the disputed name has been registered by Shah since September 25, 2008.

WIPO is a specialised agency of the United Nations for developing a balanced and accessible international system in the field of intellectual property rights.

The California-headquartered firm has been using the name ‘GOOG’ as a NASDAQ financial stock ticker since 2004. The company has used the trademark GOOGLE since the inception of its business in 1997.

The search giant operates a blog service under the brand ‘Blogger’. As per the details available with WIPO, a pre-complaint correspondence between the parties (Google and Shah) failed to resolve the dispute.

However on May 2, after commencement of administrative proceedings, Shah stated before the panel that the registration of domain name was in bad faith and was an infringement of intellectual property.

"I was in a bad faith that I can legally keep the domain googblog.com … I really did very unfair to Google. I sincerely apologize to Google for infringement, misuse of their intellectual property (GOOGBLOG.COM)," Shah stated.

The WIPO panel found in this case the consent-to-transfer request replaces the need to assess the matter under the elements of its Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy and ordered the transfer of the domain name to Google.

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