Category: Archive

We’ll admit it: so far, most conversations concerning the Microsoft-Yahoo deal and antitrust issues have related to the U.S. and Europe.  Still, two potential roadblocks were eliminated yesterday when the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Canadian Competition Bureau signaled their intent not to oppose the partnership.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers released their latest Internet advertising numbers for the third quarter. According to the organizations, Internet advertising revenues reached nearly $5.5 billion for the quarter. That is an increase of 1.7% from the second quarter.

The numbers are still significantly down from the same period last year, but any increase is a good sign of things to come. There has been a 5.4% decline from last year.

The companies behind search engines sometimes try to attract more traffic by advertising.  Establishing a partnership is another strategy, as is improving the actual search results.  Microsoft might be ready to try something a little different, however, as a new report’s indicated that the company is interested in making Google’s results worse.

New research from Nielsen finds that during the last weeks of October and the early weeks of November, the number of unique visitors to the top websites offering previews of Black Friday deals (like bfads.net for example), has been increasing rapidly. No surprise there.

Week-over-week, however, traffic to these sites has increased by as much as 87%, from 3.8 million unique visitors during the week ending November 8, to 7 million during the week ending November 15.

If you didn’t read or somehow couldn’t guess from the title, LinkedIn’s hit a significant milestone, attracting its 3 millionth member in the UK.  This is a very good sign for the networking site that’s focused on connecting people aside from those who see each other at school or parties every week.

Google has announced that the Iraqi government has launched a dedicated YouTube channel. It can be found at youtube.com/iraqigov.

The Iraqi government joins the Pope, the Royal Family, Queen Rania, and the presidents of the United States, France, South Korea, and Estonia in having YouTube channels to communicate with the public. Here’s a YouTube message from Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki:

Update: Google has also now added favicons to feeds in Google Reader.

Google has launched a mobile version of its new search results for movies. This comes just in time for the holidays, so bored people can find some entertainment while their significant others are out shopping on Black Friday or watching the games.

Chris Liddell, who’s served as Microsoft’s chief financial officer for four and a half years, intends to leave the company rather soon.  Microsoft announced that Peter Klein will be transitioning in over the next month, and then Liddell will depart at the end of the 2009.

It should comfort Microsoft fans and/or shareholders to know that Liddell isn’t leaving in any sort of disgrace; CEO Steve Ballmer complimented him in a formal statement, and Liddell in fact seems to be interested in becoming a CEO himself.

Consider yourself forewarned: the official line is that "Facebook has no plans to go public at this time."  Just the same, a financial maneuver the company’s performing has raised a few eyebrows since it seems to point towards that possibility.