

Google's recurring physical expansions may have gone a little too far. There's word that the search giant now plans to shrink a bit by closing offices in Denver and Dallas.
Of all the post-Google search engine startups, Powerset was touted as the most likely Google-killer. We waited with bated breath, we rubbered our necks around to get a better glimpse—early reports were stellar, yes this was the one to take on Google and. . .Wait, what?
Sold to Microsoft. $100 million? Wait, what?
A beach party organized on Facebook that was expected to attract as many as 10,000 revelers has been canceled after police warned that it was illegal.
More than 7,000 people had confirmed on the social networking site that they would attend the party billed as "a night of mayhem," in the coastal town of Torbay, England.
Things aren't cool anymore once everybody starts doing them, that's the Law of Cool*. The same applies to selling one's immortal soul on the Internet, which has entered let's-throw-a-toga-party-like-they-did-on-Animal-House status**. Our latest soul peddler is from New Zealand, who learned like others before him that hosted auction websites don't want anywhere near his soul or lack thereof.
This weekend, as we fire up the grills and the sparklers (and some pyrotechnic contraband, depending on where you live), we also fan the flames of patriotism and of brotherhood, knowing that despite our differences of opinion in politics, the flames in our bellies are unending and conceived in the spirit of the unity of all voices.
Suppose that Steve Ballmer and Jerry Yang miraculously agreed on something: the sale of Yahoo's search department. A new Hitwise report sorts through the pile of properties that would remain, and as it turns out, the leftovers look pretty tasty.
Over half (55%) of all adult Americans now have a high-speed Internet connection at home, according to a new survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
The percentage of Americans with broadband has increased from 47 percent in early 2007 and 42 percent in early 2005. Of those who access the Internet at home, 79 percent have a high-speed connection and 15 percent use dialup.
Adults who live in households whose annual incomes are less than $20,000 a year, home broadband adoption was at 25% in early 2008, compared to 28 percent in 2007.
Until now, Google Street View never allowed anyone to see outside America. Thankfully, this year's Tour de France seems to have provided enough of a reason for other images to be released.
A video on YouTube depicting a ball girl at a minor league baseball game making an unbelievable catch is actually a shelved ad for Gatorade.
The ball girls superhuman leap was actually done by a stuntwoman who was helped into the air by cables. The accidental viral video has received more than 3.5 million hits on a variety of Web sites within the last month.
Borders.com has partnered with Bazaarvoice, a social commerce applications provider to offer user rating and reviews on its recently launched Web site.
Borders said its working with Bazaarvoice because it helps create a "Compelling and interactive online experience."
"When you walk through a Borders store, you quickly realize that customer conversations are an essential part of the shopping experience," said Kevin Ertell, senior vice president of e-business for Borders Group, Inc.
Online television is nice for all sorts of reasons - the convenience, the selection, the lack of cost. And for advertisers, online content linked to television is nice because it's helpful in selling new cars.
Carefully weigh how much you dislike typing on cell phones against how much you want to keep private whatever you're researching. Then, if you dare, check out the new voice search abilities connected to Google Maps for mobile.
A solider in the U.S. Army has been ordered to shut down his blog for writing posts that criticized his superior officers.
Blogging about the Iraq war under the pseudonym "LT [Lieutenant] G" since December 2007 the popular blog called "Kaboom: A Soldiers War Journal," detailed the daily life of the war describing firefights, combat patrols and tribal meetings.
Firefox hit a new high point last month as it continues to enjoy a rise in popularity. Although not yet at the nice, round number of 20 percent, the Web browser now has a market share of over 19 percent.
Getting pandas to mate couldn't be much more difficult than getting Microsoft and Yahoo to. Mr. Softy makes a grand display, woos, is rejected; Yahoo changes heart, does a strip tease, but Mr. Softy's pride is too wounded. The insider drama revealed in a lengthy report by the Wall Street Journal plays out like a pair of lovers flirting with disaster one way or the other.
Orbitz Worldwide has announced that it has signed a multi-year agreement with Microsoft to be the online travel agency for MSN.com's travel portal in the U.S. and the UK.
Orbitz.com replaces the Microsoft founded Expedia in the U.S. and affiliate ebookers.com will serve the MSN UK site.
Orbitz says the deal could attract 3.5 million visitors per month to Orbitz through MSN Travel. Orbitz did not offer data on how many visitors it could bring to its ebookers site.
So much for global domination. Less than two weeks after Facebook targeted the Chinese market, users' problems with its Chinese-language site point to either serious regional outages or government censorship.
French public television channel, France 3 has launched an investigation into how an off air video of irritated French President Nicolas Sarkozy found its way online.
The video shows a France 3 technician attaching a microphone to Sarkozy's tie, and ignoring the presidents greeting. "It's a question of manners," Sarkozy is heard saying on the video. "When you're invited, you're entitled to have people say 'hello' to you."
A lot of people don't participate in Google's TV, newspaper, and radio advertising programs. Others aren't even aware they exist. So Google has launched a new traditional media blog with the aim of changing both these conditions.
Rock the Vote and MySpace have partnered on an initiative to encourage potential voters to register to vote for the 2008 presidential election.
The "DemROCKracy Band Competition" invites any artists with a MySpace page to install a widget that allows users to register to vote. The goal is to register as many voters as possible.
On her MySpace blog today, Courtney Love penned an erratic message to her fans detailing an elaborate-sounding embezzlement scheme by her management, which includes computer hacking and dummy corporations, to fleece her for $380 million. It's unclear if what she posted is real, a joke, or off-the-deep-end crazy.
In 2008 online marketers will spend $2.1 billion on affiliate marketing fees, with U.S. online affiliate marketing spending hitting $3.3 billion in 2012 according to a new report from JupiterResearch, "US Online Affiliate Marketing Forecast, 2007-2012."
The report found affiliate marketing remains popular because it is performance based, has a low risk and requires a small initial investment. Marketers tend to work with affiliates that attract the most traffic to their sites, which results in a handful of affiliates bringing the majority of traffic and sales.
Google's owned a five percent stake in AOL for the better part of three years. Now, thanks to the passage of time and the terms of their partnership, the search giant's getting the option of escaping.
Satya Nadella, the senior vice president of Microsoft's Search, Portal & Advertising Platform Group, isn't afraid to admit that the current crop of search engines suffer from some problems. Nadella seems to be hoping, however, that his company's acquisition of Powerset will help it solve them.
Online shoppers who are residents of the state of Washington will now have to start paying sales tax on purchases made on the Internet.
Starting today Washington joins 18 other states that require some online retailers to collect sales tax. About 1,100 ecommerce retailers have agreed to collect taxes in exchange for the state not going after them for back taxes.
SEOs should prepare to feel all warm and fuzzy. In a document titled "What's an SEO? Does Google recommend working with companies that offer to make my site Google-friendly?" Google's softened some of the language it uses to describe them.
For the first time in thirty years, Wall Street saw a quarter come and go with no companies going public. The second quarter of 2008 proved to be a disappointing one all around.
Adding on to residual distrust from the dotcom bust, venture capitalists and investment firms are reluctant to debut their startups to the public market during such a weak climate. Memories of Vonage's embarrassing public offering two years ago don't help the situation; venture capitalists feel going public during the current market's mood would be anticlimactic.
Last month the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) introduced a draft proposal to put eBay Australia's plan to move to a PayPal - only system on hold.
Yesterday in Sydney eBay sellers gathered at a conference organized by the ACCC to discuss the draft proposal before the July 3 deadline for submissions. The sellers urged the ACCC to not to allow eBay to go to a PayPal only system in the country.
There's nothing improper about the VP of aftermarket domain auctions bidding up domain prices, says GoDaddy, but they've banned employees from participating in the future anyway, just to make everybody happy.
And likely, to make the all the dirty looks go away.
What looked like an idle comment in NamePros.com's domain forum stirred up the hornets nest a bit. The comment from a senior forum member going by Stevie read this way:
It seems like the economy gets a little scarier with every passing week. Still, new Hitwise data shows that customers are ready to shop, and it even points to an approach or three that retailers should adopt.
Discovery - owned HowStuffWorks.com is launching its first-ever marketing campaign in hopes of attracting more users and advertisers.
Discovery Communications purchased the U.S. branch of HowStuffWorks six months ago for $250 million. The marketing campaign includes 30-second spots on Discovery's online properties along with its TV properties.
Google Apps is something we don't hear about too often; compared to search, it simply doesn't come up. Google Apps is getting along just fine, though, and a new development involving Taylor Woodrow proves this point.
With gas prices hitting record highs a new service is hoping to offer U.S. drivers some relief when they fill up at the pump.
A new Miami-based company, MyGallons.com is offering consumers the chance to purchase gasoline at current prices and then fill up later when prices will be inevitably higher.