Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) is unhappy with the search advertising deal it has with Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) for its broadband portal and is chatting up Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ:MSFT) MSN service, according to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required).

The no. 1 cable company is unhappy with the terms of its current deal with Google and wants a larger share of the advertising revenue, the paper said, adding that Comcast.net is one of the biggest sources of Google search queries from outside the company.

There's isn't anything unusual about the Comcast-Google situation. I'm sure Google is involved in lots of contract negotiations like it. What's weird is that the Comcast dispute got publicized. Why Comcast trying to send Google a message via the Journal?

Though this deal isn't significant for the bottom line of any of these huge companies, it's worth monitoring. My colleague Tom Taulli correctly points out that Google is starting to show vulnerabilities and that search has the potential to become a commodity.

Google doesn't want to give up traffic to any competitor, especially MSN. Microsoft is probably the only company that can break the zen-like calm of Google's management.

The Philadelphia-based company wants to boost its Web presence, which includes sites like Eonline.com, as competition for television and broadband internet services heats up. Microsoft wants to establish credibility in search to rebut critics who claim the company is pouring billions into a foolish quest to catch up to Google.

So there's lots of pride and ego at stake here. It will be interesting to see how things work out.

Following a beta-test in Hawaii, Time Warner Cable is launching PhotoShow TV. This version of the SimpleStar software product will allow subscribers of Time Warner's digital cable TV service to share personal photos and video clips with other subscribers for free. They'll also be able to post these items onto the video-on-demand service.

I don't know anyone who uses these kind of web/television tools, but seems a good resource and may pique the interest of those who don't want to bother signing up for Flickr -- or whose network of family and friends is more television- than web-oriented. As long as everyone you want to share photos with also has digital Time Warner Cable, you'll be fine. Works with Windows Media Center PC, Windows XP, and Xbox 360.

Michael Canfield is a private investor, a business and media writer, living in Seattle. He doesn't own stock in Time Warner.

Time Warner (TWX) wanted to ditch the NFL Network on some of the cable television markets they recently obtained out of the Adelphia bankruptcy. The FCC didn't like that, or at least wanted to mull it over, so told Time Warner that they must continue running that network for 30 days while the matter is looked into. Well, Time Warner didn't like that, and appealed the ruling they be forced to continue running it, even for such a brief interm, calling it "forced speech" to make them do so!

So for Time Warner this is a First Amendment issue! The FCC sees it, more prosaically, as a customer service issue, and for the moment, cable customers will get what they paid for under Adelphia because Time Warner lost this appeal, with the FCC saying: "We believe that on balance the granting of interim relief is warranted."

Michael Canfield is a private investor, a business and media writer, living in Seattle. He doesn't own stock in TWX.

The Associated Press is reporting that EarthLink and Time Warner extended an agreement which originated in 2000. Under the deal, Atlanta-based EarthLink (ELNK) will continue providing broadband services to about 19 million households that are not serviced by Time Warner Cable's own broadband system.

Next to AOL, EarthLink is one of the most recognized ISP names in the States. Time Warner (TWX) and its rival in cable, Comcast, are looking to further capitalize on opportunities opened up by Adelphia's woes, especially now that approval of the sale of Adelphia assets to the two cable giants a couple weeks back is out of the way.