Yahoo! red-faced! over! curry! blog! ripoff!

Blames its out-saucer

Posted in Bootnotes, 9th March 2007 10:10 GMT

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Yahoo was left mumbling apologies in multiple languages this week after it emerged that it had lifted curry recipes from the blog of an Indian housewife.

The search and info megalith launched its Malayalam language portal last month. The language is mainly spoken in the Southern Indian state of Kerala. As any curry afficianado knows, Kerala is also famous for its nosh.

So it’s no surprise that Yahoo wanted to beef up its menus with some tasty local grub. Unfortunately, the recipes it used were cribbed from the blog of a local housewife, who not surprisingly, was extremely displeased.

ComputerWorld reports that Yahoo coughed to the misappropriation this week, and blamed a subcontractor for supplying content to which it did not hold the rights.

Full details of the spat, and more importantly links to the original recipes, are here. The posting includes details of how to make a gooseberry pickle. We’re sure Yahoo! knows how that feels.®

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