Aussies allow GoogleClick to proceed

Leave it to a former penal colony to rush to judgment. The Australian Consumer and Competition Commission has already approved Google's $3.1 billion DoubleClick acquisition, only six months after Google announced the deal in April. The commission found the two companies were not competitors. In the U.S., the Federal Trade Commission is expected to approve the deal, but it's taking its time while Microsoft's lobbyists spur noisy debate in Congress. Europe's the model of propriety here. Its regulatory body has already heard the case, but wants more time to make further inquiries. The lesson in all this? Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer must not be too worried about his company's Australian prospects. Either that, or Google's right-wing Australian mouthpiece, Rob Shilkin, is actually good at his job.

Microsoft gets McNaughty down under

Tech behemoth Microsoft has signed, alas, not signed Australian beauty queen Erin McNaught as an IT spokeswoman this week, contrary to prior reports that she was going to promote the "sexy" image of IT professionals. McNaught, known to the Australian press as McNaughty, does have a few tech qualifications — more than many other beauty queens, anyway. She currently hosts the Aussie gaming show "Cyber Shack" and was a student at Queensland Institute of Technology before she left to pursue a modeling career. It turns out, however, that she was just a last-minute replacement speaker at a Microsoft-sponsored conference. Too bad. We were anxiously waiting to see how she would take on Google's right-wing Australian spokesman, Rob Shilkin.

Google's right-wing Australian mouthpiece

Google, more than ever, needs brassy PR people who aren't afraid to assert boldly that black is white, ignorance is freedom, and evil is good. Heck, I'd applaud the hiring of Rob Shilkin purely on the basis of his last name. (Say it with me: "SHILL-kin.") But I wonder if the mostly lefty crew in the Googleplex were aware of his politics. Four years ago, Shilkin, then a lawyer, penned several pieces praising the "Allies' great work in Iraq" and decrying critics of pre-war intelligence reports. Then again, perhaps his fellow Googlers learned all this through the company's quasi-proctological interview process, and came away from it admiring his capacity for doublespeak and self-delusion.