Google, Microsoft move to block child porn

Eric Schmidt said Google would be rolling out changes to search in 150 languages to block access to child porn around the world.

LONDON (CNNMoney)

More than 200 employees at Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) have spent the past three months working on preventing child sexual abuse content from appearing in the firm's search results.

"While society will never wholly eliminate such depravity, we should do everything in our power to protect children from harm," Google's executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, wrote in an article published by The Daily Mail.

Schmidt detailed how the two tech giants were using new technology to take down many images and videos of child porn from the web.

Using Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) picture detection technology, a unique identification mark is applied to such content, and then all copies are immediately removed from the web.

Google has also cleaned up the search results for over 100,000 web queries that were known to lead to child porn-related results.

"We will soon roll out these changes in more than 150 languages, so the impact will be truly global," said Schmidt.

Another 13,000 search queries that are related to child porn will lead web users to online warnings saying that child sexual abuse is illegal, while offering advice on where to get help.

Related: Will Google Docs kill off Microsoft Office?

The move comes a week after the arrest of 348 people around the world who were connected to an international child sex abuse investigation. Of the people arrested, there were 40 teachers, six law enforcement personnel, nine pastors or priests and some doctors and nurses.

Microsoft said the companies were working with experts in the field to track the latest terms that pedophiles may be using online, and then cutting off access to any sort of child pornography.

The initiative was completed in cooperation with various industry and government organizations, including the Internet Watch Foundation and the U.K. government.

Last week, Microsoft also opened a new cybercrime center at its campus in Redmond, Washington.

First Published: November 18, 2013: 8:24 AM ET

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New Mini: Bigger, faster, smarter

LONDON (CNNMoney)

The German automaker said it is investing £750 million across its three U.K. manufacturing sites to support the launch.

Most of that will be spent at a 1,000-robot body shop in Oxford, which is also celebrating 100 years of car making this year.

The new generation will have a completely new engine and new chassis technology, while staying unmistakeably true to the Mini design tradition.

It will also make a big leap in the small car market by allowing devices and apps based on Google (GOOG, Fortune 500)'s Android and Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500)'s iOS integrate with Mini Connected, its version of BMW's iDrive multimedia navigation and entertainment system.

Related: Corvette named Automobile of the Year

BMW (BAMXF) revived the brand in 2001. Since then, more than 2.4 million Minis have rolled off the assembly line, and nearly 1.9 million have been exported.

Designed by Alec Issigonis, the original Mini was launched by the British Motor Corporation in 1959, setting new standards for space and driving performance in a small car.

Related: Best resale value cars

Production of the original version continued under various owners until 2000. BMW relaunched the hardtop hatchback the following year and has since added convertible, estate, coupe, roadster and SUV versions.

More than 300,000 Minis were sold in 2012, and sales in the first 10 months of this year reached a record 249,700.

The U.S. is the biggest market for the Mini, closely followed by the U.K. Germany, China and France are also major markets.

-- CNN's Jim Boulden contributed to this article.

First Published: November 18, 2013: 10:20 AM ET

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'Green' commuter tax break may be slashed

Starting January 1, commuters who use mass transit and van pool riders will only be able to take $130 off their pre-tax income for commuting costs - about half the current amount.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Right now, millions of people who take mass transit to work, as well as those who drive and pay to park, can reduce their pre-tax income by up to $245 a month in commuting and parking expenses.

But starting January 1, mass transit and van pool riders will only be able to take $130 off their pre-tax income for commuting costs, while drivers will be able to write off $250 for parking.

A mass transit commuter in the 25% tax bracket could lose about $470 next year if the transit benefit drops to $130, said Mike O'Toole, senior director of government relations at the American Payroll Association.

More than 2.7 million families use the transit break to defray the cost of getting to work, according to one coalition advocating for parity between the two breaks. The break only applies to workers whose employers offer it among other benefits.

Practically, the transit portion of the benefit is likely to be used most heavily in places where buses, ferries, light rail systems and subways are commonly used, said Dan Neuburger, president of WageWorks Commuter Services.

Related: 15 quickest commutes

"This would certainly include large markets such as New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. The benefit is also popular in smaller markets where vanpooling helps to defray the cost of commuting and reduces road congestion," Neuburger said.

Roughly 15,000 companies in New York alone offer the transit benefit, covering about 700,000 employees, WageWorks estimates.

As tax breaks go, the commuter benefit is not hugely expensive to federal coffers -- the Congressional Budget Office in 2012 estimated the 10-year cost at less than $3 billion.

There is a push by some on Capitol Hill to make sure that parity between the tax break for mass transit and parking is maintained and made permanent.

The only problem: Congress is nowhere near dispensing with any of its legislative business this year. It's still mired in basic questions about the federal budget for fiscal year 2014, which started last month. Plus, it has a host of other expiring provisions it has yet to deal with.

That's why O'Toole wouldn't be surprised to see a repeat of the headache Congress created over the commuter benefit for 2012.

Back then, lawmakers failed to prevent the transit portion from being slashed that year. Then in January 2013 they restored it to the same level as the parking benefit and made the change retroactive for all of 2012. That meant payroll departments had to scramble to reissue W2 forms and refund employees for payroll taxes they shouldn't have had to pay in 2012, O'Toole said.

First Published: November 18, 2013: 7:04 AM ET

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For Geithner, a lucrative life in the private sector

President-elect Obama announced Tim Geithner as his nominee for treasury secretary shortly after the 2008 election.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

He was one of the least wealthy Treasury chiefs in recent history -- and he suffered at least a 50% pay cut when taking that job.

But with a new appointment at the private equity firm Warburg Pincus, plus income from a book deal and paid speeches, Geithner is poised to make many times his salary in the public sector, where he worked for 25 years.

Geithner was a pauper next to his predecessor Hank Paulson, the former Goldman Sachs Goldman CEO who was possibly worth upwards of $500 million. Although Paulson was one of the richest Treasury secretaries, many who take the job do so after a lucrative career on Wall Street.

Not Geithner. He started at the Treasury Department in 1988 after a short time at the consulting firm Kissinger Associates. Geithner specialized in international economics and rose through the Treasury ranks, then took a leadership role at the International Monetary Fund. In 2003, he was picked to head the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Geithner earned $411,200, plus benefits and an even larger severance payout, in his final year at the Fed, according to financial disclosures.

As Treasury secretary, he earned a salary of $199,700. His net worth has been estimated at between $239,000 and $6 million.

Related: How much is a Treasury Secretary worth?

Neither the private equity firm, book publisher nor speaking agency disclosed details of Geithner's pay.

But his fee per speech is estimated to reach six figures, in line with speaking fees paid to other former top government officials. In the first half of this year, he brought in $400,000 for three speeches, according to the Financial Times, which cited unnamed people familiar with the speeches. One was at the annual meeting of Warburg Pincus, the Financial Times reported.

Random House announced last spring Geithner was working on a book about the financial crisis.

His will follow the 2010 publication of Paulson's "On the Brink." Paulson made the first TARP payments before handing the baton to Geithner, and now leads a think tank at the University of Chicago.

Related: Where are the key players of the fiscal crisis now?

But several secretaries before Paulson returned to the private sector, including Robert Rubin, who served under President Clinton, then took a key post at Citigroup -- one of the banks which needed billions in federal bailout money to stay afloat.

The so-called revolving door between the public and private sectors gives government officials a route to cash in, said Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute.

"The federal government pay scale tends to compress earnings into a narrower range than private markets," he said. Lower-ranked officials make more than their private sector peers, but "at the top end, there's absolutely no doubt ... that they can do better in the private sector."

Edwards said financial firms value former federal workers for two reasons: their connections and their understanding of the byzantine rules, regulations and processes inside Washington. They're also willing to pay someone of Geithner's experience many, many times his federal salary, he said.

Related: What Jack Lew is worth

And then there's the prestige of bringing Tim Geithner on board.

"Any financial firm would be thrilled to have a Treasury secretary who understands everything about [the way] Washington speaks," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "Any cabinet secretary can expect to go out and make a lot of money, but particularly in Treasury."

Geithner left office in January and begins at Warburg Pincus in March 2014. He is barred for one year from lobbying the government on issues he previously worked on, Sloan said, although the firm did not say Geithner's role includes lobbying.

Warburg Pincus said Geithner will have a significant strategic and managerial role as president and managing director. The firm holds $35 billion in assets -- though in some ways, that's small change compared to Geithner's experience overseeing the $17 trillion U.S. economy.

First Published: November 18, 2013: 4:10 AM ET

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How to boost your online sales this holiday season

Want to boost online sales? Show customers that you have personality and help them find the perfect gift.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Make people love you. Not only will they be more likely to buy this season, but there's a good chance they'll return after the holidays. Here are some tips on how to make it happen.

Give them personality

Beyond sales, promotions and free shipping, people want suggestions on what to buy. Online reviews and ratings are key, but so is a point of view, says Jen Handley, COO of Fizziology, which monitors consumer trends on social media. Provide interesting gift guides, unexpected finds or even guest bloggers who can make recommendations beyond the ordinary, says Handley. "Consumers don't know what's hot this holiday season until someone tells them."

Related: 8 must-have holiday toys

You should also offer advice on how best to use a product. Online bag retailer eBags.com boosts sales with 1,000 videos on its site. Designers talk on camera about their inspiration and show key product features and materials. One video featured designer Bernard Majeau talking about a wheeled duffel, which turned the bag into a top seller; in fact, more than half the people who viewed the video watched for more than three minutes.

"He has a bit of a geeky charm, which makes him believable, likeable, and trustworthy," says eBags cofounder Peter Cobb. "There's no doubt that people who watch the videos are far more likely to buy."

Get ideas from social

Think beyond Twitter (TWTR) blasts and Facebook (FB, Fortune 500) "likes." Use social media to tap into what people want this holiday season to push the right products. "If you see argyle sweaters trending for your brand on Pinterest, Tumblr or Instagram, then feature those argyle sweaters more prominently online and in-store," says Apu Gupta, CEO of Curalate, a social analytics firm.

Related: Which social network is best for your business?

Fuel your fan base by posting consumer photos on your site and in social media. Services like Pongr, Pixlee and Stipple help businesses use images to market online.

Put real people behind your site

Most businesses line up the technology to handle the online holiday rush, but many fail when it comes to customer service, says Jordy Leiser, CEO of StellaService, which rates customer service of online retailers. Strive for the kind of word-of-mouth success Zappos built with service. Show your toll-free number on every page. Ramp up staffing to handle volume and expand your customer service hours. "Great customer service is the best marketing there is," Leiser says.

Related: Want loyal customers? Build a culture of saying 'yes'

Let them find you anywhere

Three-quarters of smartphone owners will browse on their phones this season, according to a Google survey. So it's vital to ensure your site works on mobile and that access to shopping carts is seamless between desktop and phones.

Cobb expects a quarter of eBags' traffic to come from smart phones this next month, so the company spent 11 months making sure its site worked well on every device. eBags resized images, changed the spacing, improved navigation and made links more obvious for mobile users. They also added the ability for customers to save their cart or email it to themselves for later checkout. "You need for it to be as easy as possible because otherwise people will bolt," Cobb says.

Related: 9 apps every business traveler needs

First Published: November 18, 2013: 7:02 AM ET

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Stocks edge toward new milestones

Click on chart to track premarkets

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

U.S. stock futures edged higher Monday, pulling out of an early morning slump.

The Dow is nearing 16,000, while the S&P 500 is not far off 1,800.

U.S. stocks finished higher Friday, with the Dow and S&P 500 index closing at new highs.

Related: What will keep the rally going?

Boeing (BA, Fortune 500) shares rose Monday after the aircraft maker said it sold more than $95 billion of its new 777X at the Dubai air show. Boeing said it was a record launch for a new aircraft and was far more than analysts had been forecasting.

Looking ahead to Monday, Tyson Foods (TSN, Fortune 500) is scheduled to release its quarterly results Monday morning, while Salesforce.com (CRM) is up after the bell.

Meanwhile, market enthusiasm in Europe was picking up in morning trading.

Related: Fear & Greed Index: extreme greed

Asian markets rallied, with Chinese stocks jumping significantly higher after a new document from the government outlined important reform plans for the country.

Both the Shanghai Composite index and the Hang Seng powered ahead by nearly 3%, with investors cheering the laundry list of social and economic reforms, which included 60 specific tasks.

Deutsche Bank chief economist Jun Ma called the reforms "by far the most profound reforms in a decade, if not decades, in terms of scope, depth, and impact."

First Published: November 18, 2013: 5:00 AM ET

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Will saving $1.8M for retirement be enough?

Are you saving enough for retirement? Click the image above to use our retirement calculator.

NEW YORK (Money Magazine)

Not yet, says Michael Kitces, publisher of Nerd's Eye View, a blog for financial advisers.

Even if your hoped-for 8% annualized returns pan out, your nest egg will be less impressive. Assuming 3% inflation and a safe 4% initial withdrawal rate, you'd have annual pretax income in retirement equivalent to $26,300 in today's dollars -- not exactly opulent.

Related: 'How I saved $1 million'

A more cautious forecast of 6% returns -- better safe than sorry -- translates into just $13,700 a year.

More snags: While the snowball effect of compounding returns is powerful, a string of bad returns, similar to that of the 2000s, would dash your dreams. And what if you can't work until 67?

Related: 'How I retired early'

To lessen your shortfall risk, advises Kitces, continue saving and create a balanced portfolio that won't need stellar returns to keep you in comfort.

First Published: November 18, 2013: 10:13 AM ET

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Emerging markets aren't on sale yet

Yes, Chinese and other emerging market stocks are down this year, but there's little reason to love them now.

(Money Magazine)

The darling buys of the 2000s, shares of companies based in the developing world have had a tough two years because of both slowing growth in China and the end of cheap global credit that pumps up demand for risky assets.

To proponents, this merely means an attractive asset class is on sale. "Recent declines were overdone and based largely on irrational investor panic," says Franklin Templeton's emerging-markets guru Mark Mobius.

That may be looking through rose-colored glasses. Here's what I see:

Valuations haven't improved

The price/earnings ratio for these shares, based on projected earnings over the next year, is 11.4. Because profits have fallen, that's higher than when the MSCI Emerging Markets Index peaked in May 2011, before tumbling 17%.

Related: Dividend stocks are still sexy

"You can assume these stocks are cheap, but that's just not the case yet," says Janney Montgomery Scott strategist Mark Luschini.

Tailwinds are fading

For decades, emerging economies benefited from an endless supply of young workers and weren't financially burdened by a large elderly population. No longer.

In China, the ratio of dependents to workers, which had been falling for years, is now rising -- as in the slower-growing U.S. The same goes for Russia, Eastern Europe, and the Asian Tigers. Just as worrisome: China's working population, like the developed world's, has peaked and is likely to fall for the next three decades.

Expectations are diminishing

"China's economy is not merely going through a temporary dip," says LPL Financial strategist Jeffrey Kleintop, noting that annual GDP growth could fall from 7% to 5% in the coming decade.

"You're seeing the emerging markets transition to the next phase," says Alejandra Grindal, senior international economist for Ned Davis Research.

Related: Emerging market woes: Contained or contagion?

This means the selloff may not be a fire sale, but rather a rational repricing of profit growth that's slowed from 18% a year to 12.5%. That's just a point faster than the U.S.

By contrast, earnings in the "frontier markets" -- less developed economies such as Vietnam and Nigeria -- are rising 18.3%.

Going forward, you'll have to shift at least a third of your emerging-market stake into a fund such as iShares MSCI Frontier 100 (FM) to give your foreign portfolio the pop you're used to.

Your bonus: You'll gain some diversification, as frontier markets don't move in sync with more established ones.

First Published: November 18, 2013: 9:47 AM ET

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Why China wants to dominate Bitcoin

China is quickly moving to become one of the leading players in the Bitcoin market.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Until recently the digital cyrptocurrency was considered a joke by the financial mainstream, but the view is starting to shift now that prices have surged above their April peak and are now hovering around $600.

Bitcoins are still being viewed cautiously by lawmakers and regulators in the United States. In fact, there are two Senate hearings this week about the risks Bitcoin poses. But that is decidedly not the case in China. There has been a steady drumbeat of positive news in the Chinese press this year, including a landmark report on CCTV, China's national television network.

China's fascination with the currency upstart resulted in an estimated 40,000 client downloads a day and a burgeoning acceptance rate from online retailers down to physical traders standing in Tiananmen Square.

The largest Bitcoin exchange in the world is located securely inside China, and one of the world's largest Internet companies, Baidu (BIDU), is integrating and using Bitcoin. It seems highly unlikely that Baidu would be able to integrate Bitcoin payments across its vast network of users without some sort of complicit nod from higher authorities.

Chinese interest could play a huge role in turning Bitcoin into the first trillion dollar non-fiat currency.

Related: China fuels Bitcoin surge to record high

So why has China been so quick to embrace the virtual currency? It has been down this road before. In 2009, the government moved to staunch the rapidly rising phenomenon known as QQ, the virtual currency from social juggernaut Tencent (TCEHY).

In just a couple of years, QQ had grown to such an extent that some estimates put it at 13% of the Chinese cash economy. It was threatening to supplant the yuan in a viral tsunami that showed no signs of abating. At its height, people similarly gathered in public places to trade QQ, and shopkeepers began accepting it for payment.

Because Tencent controlled QQ through central online reserves, the Communist Party's response was swift, hobbling QQ at its knees and bringing it well back into line overnight. How did they do it? Since QQ was centrally managed, all the Chinese government had to do was tell Tencent to limit QQ's use or face a total shutdown of their business. So Tencent reeled it in.

Such a move is not so easy with the decentralized cryptography of Bitcoin, and Chinese officials know that.

Within months of the chop on QQ, the Bitcoin algorithm was released anonymously online. Bitcoin is difficult to trace. And as the open source aspects of Bitcoin grew and strong demand began to push up prices, China took notice, perhaps having been more aware than others of how quickly and completely these things can take off.

In terms of geopolitics, the implications of Chinese support for Bitcoin are clear and complicated for the U.S. The more bitcoins a person or entity control, the higher their influence in all things Bitcoin. While it is unlikely anyone will ever control more than 51% of Bitcoin, such an event could put the currency under control of that actor.

In the meantime, Bitcoin presents a marvelous gift for China, a country anxious to exert financial influence on a global scale, but nervous to overtly undercut the U.S. dollar, which it holds in abundance.

It could also help China exert more economic influence over commodity-rich Africa. Digital currencies like Bitcoin are already set to take off there and bring financial inclusion to 2.5 billion of the world's most under-banked.

Related: Donate to typhoon victims ... with Bitcoin

As Bitcoin infrastructure matures, it has the potential to be used as a currency in commodity markets and other areas of trade with lightning quickness, from gold to wheat to cotton and, yes, oil.

In Africa, this could mean the destruction of weak country currencies, large scale consumer adoption via mobile payments, and a new era for Chinese financial supremacy in Africa at large. For America, oil contracts from non-OPEC countries denominated in Bitcoin would pose significant threats.

That's why next year will be key for the future of Bitcoin. Ironically, it is the United States, the "free market" financial heavyweight in the world, that finds itself moving slowly to figure out how to adopt Bitcoin. Meanwhile, China is proving to be a leading player in this 21st century currency.

If the U.S. winds up over-regulating Bitcoin, the existing power structure in finance could be put at risk. The message to Congress is clear. Bitcoin is here to stay and lawmakers would do well to make sure that the U.S. does not get left behind in this brave, new digital currency world. The race is on, and Bitcoin doesn't care about national borders.

Stan Stalnaker is Founding Director of Hub Culture and the Ven, an asset-backed Internet reserve currency that along with Bitcoin and Ripple, is leading the digital asset market.

First Published: November 18, 2013: 9:20 AM ET

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Dow tops 16,000, S&P 500 hits 1,800

Click the chart for more stock market data.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The Dow rose slightly in late morning trading and is up more than 20% so far this year. The S&P 500 was flat but has soared more than 25% in 2013.

The Nasdaq is also on the verge of a milestone. The tech-heavy index was down a bit but is nearing 4,000, a level it hasn't hit since September 2000 -- just months after the tech market collapsed.

Experts say that this year's roaring bull market is due largely to stimulative monetary policies from the Federal Reserve as well as decent corporate earnings.

Investors will be keeping a close eye on the Fed in particular during the coming months. Current Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, the architect of the central bank's bond purchase program, will leave that role when his term expires at the end of January. Bernanke is likely to be replaced by Fed vice chair Janet Yellen, who just needs to be confirmed by the Senate.

Investors have been encouraged by comments from Yellen during her Senate confirmation hearing last week about how the Fed's policies, particularly the $85-billion-per-month bond-buying program, can continue to help the market and economy.

But ultimately, Yellen is expected to scale back, or taper, the bond buying program at some point next year.

Related: What will keep the rally going?

What's moving: Boeing (BA, Fortune 500) shares rose Monday after the aircraft maker said it sold more than $95 billion of its new 777X at the Dubai air show. Boeing said it was a record launch for a new aircraft and was far more than analysts had been forecasting. Boeing has been the biggest gainer in the Dow this year, soaring more than 85%.

Sony (SNE) shares rose after the company said it sold more than 1 million units of its new PlayStation 4 gaming console in the first 24 hours since the game console went on sale early Friday. The game system is Sony's first in seven years and is going head-to-head with Microsoft's upcoming Xbox One this holiday season. Shares of Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) slipped.

Bitcoin price surges: While stocks continued to soar, so did Bitcoin. The price of the digital currency touched an all-time high above $600 earlier Monday, up almost 20% from Friday's closing price of $528.32.

Since the start of October, the price of Bitcoin has more than quadrupled in value.

The latest surge has been fueled by the interest of new investors, especially those in China, who are becoming increasingly optimistic about the digital currency's potential growth.

Related: Fear & Greed Index: Flirting with Extreme Greed!

China unveils bold reform plan: Asian markets rallied too, with Chinese stocks jumping significantly higher after a new document from the government outlined important reform plans for the country.

The Shanghai Composite index and Hang Seng powered ahead by nearly 3%, with investors cheering the laundry list of social and economic reforms. Deutsche Bank chief economist Jun Ma called the reforms "by far the most profound reforms in a decade, if not decades, in terms of scope, depth, and impact." The reforms also sparked enthusiasm in European markets.

First Published: November 18, 2013: 9:53 AM ET

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