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Roomy Khan, a former Galleon employee has been named as the FBI informant that led to the arrest of high profile trader Raj Rajaratnam.

According to the SEC, Roomy Khan worked for Galleon in the late 1990s, then in 2005 approached Rajaratnam again wanting to return to Galleon following financial difficulties. Rajaratnam is alleged to have asked Kahn if she had inside information about any public companies, and over the next two years (despite not being hired) she provided him with insider tips about several companies, notable among them being Google.

The NY Times notes that the complaint says she agreed to become an FBI informant in November 2007 and provided evidence against him to investigators, including taped conversations. The SEC claims that Rajaratnam used the information provided on Google, Hilton Hotels and Polycom to make a $13 million profit on trades.

Not a lot about Roomy Khan’s relationship with Google, or how she obtained the information. She had previously made some small headlines when she was sued for underpaying a house servant in 2007. Notably until recently she lived in Atherton, the heart of the Valley and home to some of Google’s leading executives. Her LinkedIn profile lists her as a consultant at Trivium Capital and an Investment Manager Consultant.

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Well there is no denying that today was an interesting one when it comes to the world of search and the real time web. From everything I have read so far today everyone seems to be of the opinion that the two deals Twitter made today are pretty important and I would have to agree with that assessment.

Microsoft

Other than Twitter I would have to say that the big winner of today’s announcements definitely has to be Microsoft. Not only did they ink a deal with Twitter but they also made one with Facebook as well. While Microsoft’s Bing search already has a beta page up for searching Twitter it will be a couple of months apparently before their work with Facebook will be available.

The fact that Microsoft was able to have even a beta result page ready for the announcement today could prove to be very important for the company. As it stands Google won’t have anything available for anywhere from a few weeks to a couple of months – depending on who you talk to.

This is a golden window for Microsoft and Bing because it will give them time to review and fine tune how the results are made available during which they can try and capitalize on being the only major search provider searching the real time web. While they won’t see a rush of new users to the search service it could definitely cause more than a few to start using Bing on a more regular basis.

Google

While the web’s search darling has announced inking a deal with Twitter for access to the fire hose the fact is that they are still some time from having anything people can actually use. I find it interesting that Microsoft was able to get a beta Twitter search up for today’s announcement but Google wasn’t. This would mean that Microsoft has to have had access to that hose prior to Google which goes to suggest that Microsoft has a better grasp on the importance of Twitter and real time search.

This isn’t to suggest that Google won’t have a good product when they do bring it to the table. On the contrary I fully expect them to have an interesting take on how real time search results should be handled. I just would have expected given the current opinion of Microsoft being a stick in the mud enterprise oriented company and Google being the do no evil Web 2.0 darling perpetual beta company that they would have been first in this little skirmish.

The fact that Microsoft beat them at this point with a usable real time search product doesn’t mean that the tables have turned. Google isn’t going to lose any sleep or long time users over the deal but Microsoft may have just been given a golden opportunity to show they have a very capable product that will win some folks over.

Twitter

You have to admit this was a pretty cool deal that Twitter managed to pull off without anything really leaking out about it. Being able to ink 2 non-exclusivity deals with serious enemies who are always looking to one up each other and nothing gets out almost right up until the announcements – nicely done.

While I am sure that Twitter will be banking some serious cash out of these deals I am sure it is nothing that would pale by comparison to an exclusive deal. This has me wondering if it was Twitter that made the non-exclusivity a requirement of even talking about making any deals. If so kudos to the Twitter team for making some good money but at the same time making sure the Twitter stream remained neutral.

Overall

We are the winners here – make no mistake. Microsoft gets a chance to prove to new users that they have a better search, Google gets to index even more of the world’s info only in real time, and Twitter gets to probably put some serious cash in the bank and possibly start living up to its valuation. In the end though it us the users who will ultimately benefit.

Twitter FTW.

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Hot on the heals of the Bing/ Twitter search deal this morning, Google has joined the party and announced that they’re going to offer Twitter search as well.

According to a post from Google’s Marissa Mayer, the search giant “is very excited to announce that we have reached an agreement with Twitter to include their updates in our search results.”

“We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, and we look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months. That way, the next time you search for something that can be aided by a real-time observation, say, snow conditions at your favorite ski resort, you’ll find tweets from other users who are there and sharing the latest and greatest information.”

What perhaps isn’t clear is yet is exactly how the Tweets will appear in Google; whether this is going to be a standalone product like Google Blog Search, or some how merged into normal search results. If the latter, how will real time streaming fit into a static Google search results page?

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I remember a science fiction story I read at some point in the past that was based around the idea of being jacked in. I guess this comes pretty close to that concept.

courtesy of The Duty

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The blogosphere has been all a twitter this morning with the news that Twitter has inked a deal with Microsoft and one is in the works with Google.

Thanks to a heads up from Robert Scoble on Twitter we just found out that the Twitter search on Bing has gone live. I am only now playing with it so I don’t a real reaction yet to the whole thing but here’s some screenshots of what is there for you to explore.

And of course what would a search be without a little vanity tossed in

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Google is set to continue on its march towards global domination of just about any space it feels like with news that the search giant is preparing a music service called Google Audio

Google is said to be in negotiations with the big music labels, although it’s not clear whether the service will be a streaming site (such as Last.fm or Grooveshark) or a store along the lines of iTunes, reported the Washington Post.

The entry into music isn’t a first for Google, with the company already offering a free ad supported music service in China. That site has the backing on the big four, so the relationship is already in place for a push into the United States.

The other unknown aspect is whether Google will be approaching the music service as it has with books: copy them all then offer the public domain items free of charge. The idea that Google might archive the world’s music is divine for a music lover, however the music industry may not be overly amused by the idea.

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For the best part of the last decade Google has been rumored to be developing a fabled Google Phone, and a new report claims that phone may be on its way.

The Street claims that Google is working with a smartphone manufacturer to have a Google-branded phone available this year through retailers and not through telcos. The report goes on to say that “The move would fulfill Google’s pledge to bring a new generation of open-standard mobile Internet devices to consumers. By bypassing the carriers, who keep tight controls over the features and applications that are allowed on phones, Google will presumably offer a device that lets users determine the functions.”

Notably the report comes from the same analyst who also said that the iPhone wasn’t selling well in China, despite it not having gone on sale when the claim was made.

It’s not impossible that Google may be working on a Google Phone, but it would be surprising. Google has been taking a more hands on approach with phone makers who are using Google’s Android Operating System, notably working with Verizon and Motorola in the development of the Droid. That they’d then turn around and offer a phone that competes with their partners would be more than a little interesting, and a departure from their current strategy of offering the OS, not the handset.

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Chicago, IL (AHN) – Web surfing among older adults with little Internet experience has been shown to give their brain function a significant boost, according to a new study.

The University of California, Los Angeles researchers said in a statement that Internet use among new Web users triggers key centers in the brain that control decision making and complex reasoning after just one week. The researchers presented their findings at the Oct. 19 meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Chicago.

The researchers worked with 24 volunteers between 55 and 78 who had normal brain function. Half the participants said they had little experience using the Internet. Age, education level and gender were similar between the two groups.

The levels in brain activity were measured using magnetic resonance imaging before and after the two-week experiment began. In between, the participants conducted Internet searches at home for one hour a day, seven days a week, for two weeks.

In the end, the brain activation patterns among the computer novices were “very similar” to those seen in the savvy Internet users, the researchers said in a statement.

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The increasingly quiet (see chart above) social streaming service FriendFeed is in its death throws following its talent based acquisition by Facebook in August, but the agony is being made worse by the ramblings of one of its founders.

Friendfeed co-founder Paul Buchheit commented over the weekend on FriendFeed’s demise in a classic case of lets avoid the subject with gobbledygook, writing that the “The short answer is that the team is working on a couple of longer-term projects that will help bring FriendFeedy goodness to the larger world. Transformation is not the end. Consider this the chrysalis stage — if all goes well, a beautiful butterfly will emerge ”

Most seem to think that Buchheit didn’t give an answer, but there’s another way of reading part of the response; “a couple of longer-term projects that will help bring FriendFeedy goodness to the larger world” sounds an awful lot like FriendFeed type features will appear in Facebook, after all, that’s who Buchheit is working for now.

What is clear though is that Buchheit isn’t committing to a future for FriendFeed because there isn’t one. There can be no other explanation because it doesn’t take a Rhodes Scholar to say these three words “FriendFeed won’t close.”

Paul Buchheit, for the sake of your loyal users, past and present, be a man and put FriendFeed out of its misery by announcing the date the service will close. Those very users helped get FriendFeed to the sales table with Facebook, irrespective of what now seems to be a case of you forgetting that. At the very least, they deserve the truth, not some gobbledygook corporate speak about butterflies.

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Santa Clara, CA (AHN) – Sun Microsystems will cut up to 3,000 jobs in the next year, the company announced at the close of trading on Tuesday.

The cuts allow for about 10 percent of Sun’s workforce and will take place around the world.

The reductions came as Sun awaits a Nov. 19 decision by the European Union on its proposed $7.4 billion acquisition by Oracle.

The EU has expressed reservations about the deal, announced in April, on concern that Oracle could gain a monopoly on database software.

At the close of trading, Sun (JAVA) was down 1 percent to $9.01. Oracle (ORCL) fell 1 percent to $22.19.

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