Some people are so eager for Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) to buy Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) that they will do anything to make it happen -- even spread rumors to gullible members of the media. I pity the investors who bought Yahoo!'s stock on this rumor.

Earlier today, TechCrunch's Michael Arrington reported that the talks were back on but also noted that "The information we have is thin, but what one source is saying that Microsoft is talking a price lower than the $33." Thin? So even Arrington was not sure whether he was being told the truth. Interesting.

CNET's Dawn Kawamoto refuted TechCrunch's post, arguing that all Microsoft wanted to do was "sweeten its previous offer" of a partial buyout of Yahoo!'s search business, citing "one major investor who has been in contact without parties."

So, Kawamoto is taking the word of one person to make such a bold statement. This person must be very important if both Microsoft and Yahoo! are willing to confide their most inner-most confidences in him or her. Or maybe not. It's tough to tell. Dow Jones Newswires also denied Arrington's report but added that its sources "indicated the companies might be open to alternative transactions" whatever that means.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• Netflix Inc (NASDAQ: NFLX), the DVD rental firm, and LG Electronics, have formed a partnership to have movies delivered over the Internet by Netflix to also be shown on TV screens via a new device, reported the Wall Street Journal. Efforts by Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) have not worked.
• According to people familiar with the situation, Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) is expected to indicate as early as today it will focus attention on Tata Motors as a bidder for its Land Rover and Jaguar units, the Wall Street Journal reported.

WEBSITES:

• After Intel Capital's (NASDAQ: INTC) president, Arvind Sodhani, resigned from the board of Clearwire Corporation (NASDAQ: CLWR), speculation began that Intel has some new plans in the Wimax arena that don't involve Clearwire, according to TheInquirer.net.
• Tech Crunch reported that Plaxo, an early social networking site with per-visit numbers comparable to that of Facebook, is for sale, and has hired Revolution Partners to handle the effort.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• Barron's Online's (subscription required) "Inside Scoop" column reported that Adobe Systems (NASDAQ: ADBE) founder and co-chairman John Warnock sold 25K shares for $1.1M last week, according to SEC data.
• The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reported that Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, last night said that while the housing market will continue to be a "significant drag" on the U.S. economy next year, strong income growth has kept consumer spending steady.

OTHER PAPERS:

• Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) told Congressional investigators that it has provided customers' telephone records to federal authorities in emergency cases without court orders hundreds of times since 2005, reported the Washington Post.
• Ad agency WPP Group (NASDAQ: WPPGY) is in final negotiations to acquire Blast Radius, an Internet agency, reported the U.K. Times.
• Smith & Nephew (NYSE: SNN) is being investigated by the SEC on bribery allegations, according to the U.K. Times.
• Activist investor Knight Vinke is attacking HSBC (NYSE: HBC) once again, according to the U.K. Times.

WEBSITES:

• DigiTimes.com reported that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (NYSE: TSM) has denied a report by the Ottawa Citizen which speculated that Taiwan Semi was seeking to acquire Canadian design house Emerging Memory Technologies, saying the rumors were false.
• TechCrunch.com reported that Napster (NASDAQ: NAPS) is switching from its desktop client to a fully web based client, enabling users to listen to their music from any computer after logging into the service.

I'm fascinated by the recent attempt of Australia's Virgin Mobile to apply the internet's unruly, free-for-all mindset on the real bricks and mortar world. If you missed it, Virgin used royalty-free images from Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO)'s photo-hosting site Flickr in a print ad campaign, and subsequently faces some courtroom headaches.

Now comes the equally engaging inverse of that case -- a situation that could be woven only on the web. Popular technology blog TechCrunch has been threatened with litigation seeking $1.5 million, accused of misappropriating this professional photo of Ashton Kutcher, the actor and host of MTV's Punk'd.

What's the evidence? This Google search, apparently. Go ahead -- click the search. Assuming Google hasn't switched things around on us, the, uh, dreamy beefcake shot in question should show up at the top, promoting Google (NASDAQ: GOOG)'s image search (by the way, when did the great Googly Moogly start returning "Extra Large Images"? I gotta keep up).

If you click on Ashton's shiny, hairless torso, you'll be taken to this TechCrunch post, regarding the voice-over-IP gizmo Ooma (bewilderingly, Demi Moore's main man-boy is Ooma's creative director). Clicking on a Google image-search result typically takes you to the web page where you can see the picture in context.

Damning evidence? Here's where it gets interesting, at least for those of us whose job duties include ritual prayers to Google -- TechCrunch never actually used the photo. What has the photographer's agency all litigation-happy actually stems from Google's rocket science.

Apparently, a sass-talking TechCrunch reader, in responding to the Ooma post, included a link to the offending photo of Kutcher -- just a link, mind you, not the image itself. In indexing the TechCrunch post, Google's search math processed the linked image and associated it with the TechCrunch post (the ones and zeros at work are somewhat related to Google bombing -- if you're unfamiliar, here's a rundown of the most notorious incident thereof).

The photographer's agency had best walk away from this one -- it has no case. Or maybe Ashton's really Punk'ng TechCrunch, and this is all a brilliant promotion as part of his duties as Ooma's creative director. After all, had you heard about Ooma before?

UPDATE: It figures -- the Google search now links Kutcher's photo to this Yahoo! Answers page -- I guess it's their headache now. Learn more at TechCrunch's post.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• It was revealed yesterday that Terra Firma is among the potential bidders for Ford Motor Company's (NYSE: F) Jaguar and Land Rover brands, reported the Financial Times.
• There is a 40% to 45% risk that a recession will be triggered by the housing market downturn in the U.S., the CEO of Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) warned, the Financial Times reported.

OTHER PAPERS:

• From BusinessWeek's "Inside Wall Street" column:
  
• Investors looking for fast growth in the $110 billion business-enterprise telecom market are betting on Time Warner Telecom (NASDAQ: TWTC), which offers broadband connections for data, high-speed Web access, local voice, and long-distance service.
• Plum Creek Timber (NYSE: PCL) is flying high despite the housing slump and market decline driven by the subprime mortgage crisis.
• Universal Electronics Inc (NASDAQ: UEIC), which makes the remote controls for TVs and other appliances, has caught the Street's eye.

WEBSITES:

• Unstrung.com reported that Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ: CSCO) is close to buying a WiMax base station company, according to sources, and one possible target is Alvarion (NASDAQ: ALVR).
• Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) is reportedly going to reduce the amount of money and effort it spends on premium services related to music, games, TV, and movies, reported TechCrunch.com.

I am very pleased to have been given the opportunity to interview Dave Chalmers, Chief Operating Officer of Validas Inc. Validas is a startup company that is assertively carving out a niche for itself in the realm of wireless telecommunications billing processes. Mr Chalmers explained that Validas is built by a team that hails from companies such as Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Wireless, and he made clear that Validas presents its offerings supported upon the following premise: "Simplicity defines our service and detail defines our mission." In reflection of his company's declared intent, I found Mr. Chalmers to be both to the point and clearly definitive with his answers.

Dave Chalmers revealed to me that there's an extremely unique quality to the service offering that Validas puts forward in that Validas is thoughtfully positioned to benefit both wireless service consumers and wireless communications providers alike. Simply put, the focus of Validas is to save each and every wireless customer time and money by providing them with nearly instant clarity of their wireless communications bills, and then by giving the customer clear and concise input on how to best tailor their wireless service usage to more closely suit their particular needs and budget. The customer may then approach their service provider with a clearer definition of their needs and expectations, and the information needed to follow through on those expectations. Dave summed it up by telling me that above all else, "we are 100% focused on how we can help consumers and small businesses with our service."

According to a report at TechCrunch, Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is working on programs that will drive adoption of video advertising online. CPMs, the rate that advertisers charge customers, are estimated to be over $40 for online video. This is much higher than the rate for simple banners.

Google obviously has an edge, if it can come up with a program that both advertisers and content companies will accept. Due to its ownership of YouTube and Google Video, the company has the largest audience for video content. What it still lacks is a broadly accepted program to move TV advertising to the web.

One of the issues facing Google and competitors is whether people are willing to watch ads that are much longer than 10 or 15 seconds. Longer ads clearly offer a better opportunity to explain product features, but if web visitors will not take the time, it does not matter.

The other substantial problem is where the ads go. Do they belong in the programming or in some other spot on the web page.

With display advertising growth rates slowing and text search ads reaching a level where their year-over-year numbers are likely to be less robust, the battle for internet revenue may well turn to video.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

CNET Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: CNET) is launching a group of blogs in the hope of expanding its news coverage and appeal to a broader base. The company's stock did not move and is down today. In early 2006, the shares traded for almost $16. They now rarely trade above $9.

CNET would seem to be a good business. With the immense need for information its tech news service, download center, and reviews of new devices would seem to be critical to the needs of executives following in the industry and consumer electronics buyers.

But, as some observers have pointed out, online readers turn to blogs like Gigaom and TechCruch for the kinds of information CNET used to have. The blogs are often faster at breaking news and have more of an edge in reviewing new electronics. This may be because the newer websites do not rely on mainstream advertisers for most of their revenue.

And, the blogs have gotten big, very big. A recent look at Alexa rankings show CNET as the 153 most visited web destination. But, Engadget is No. 641 and TechCrunch is No. 644. These blogs do not have to support the large editorial and infrastructure costs that CNET does.

It is too late for CNET to get into the tech blog business. It is already commanded by independent operators with large audiences and rock-bottom costs. CNET's only open tactic is down the M&A road and perhaps the industry will see some consolidation.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has filed a suit accusing Dell Inc (NASDAQ: DELL) and affiliate Dell Financial Services of deceiving consumers, including fraud, false advertising and deceptive business practices, to increase computer sales, reported the Wall Street Journal (subscription required).
• Alan Greenspan signed Allianz's (NYSE: AZ) Pacific Investment Management, known as Pimco, as his first economic consultant client, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Barron's Online's (subscription required) "Inside Scoop" column reported that Blue Nile Inc (NASDAQ: NILE) CEO Mark Vadon sold 250,000 shares and CFO Diance Irvine sold 40,000 shares, with InsiderScore.com's Ben Silverman advising caution on Blue Nile due to the selling.
• The Financial Times (subscription required) reported that Citigroup Inc (NYSE: C) shares rose sharply in after-hours trading yesterday after Edward Lampert, the hedge fund manager who controls Sears Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ: SHLD), disclosed he had acquired an $800M stake in Citigroup.

WEBSITES:

• TechCrunch.com reported, citing two sources with knowledge of the deal, that News Corporation's (NYSE: NWS) MySpace will acquire Flektor for a price in the $10M-$20M range.

As a self-proclaimed Web 2.0 geek (those who know me will agree with that label) I am constantly reading about the next wannabe MySpace, Flickr, and YouTube. On Wednesday, TechCrunch profiled Stockpickr, "the stock idea network" targeting the financially inclined and boasting a new partnership with TheStreet.com (NASDAQ: TSCM). I have to say it was a breath of fresh air. A rarity for Web 2.0 (although certainly not the ONLY Web 2.0 finance company), Stockpickr is proving to be very helpful for those of us who have a hard time choosing stocks and funds. The site allows users to create a profile of the stocks that they normally track and then generates stock ideas based on publicly available investing information.

I haven't had the chance to fully demo it (I do, in fact, have a full-time job) but I did navigate through some of the community profiles on the left side of the page, such as Warren Buffett's holdings. It not only showed me who else bought the stocks Buffett owns, but Stockpickr also told me what else they might recommend for buyers of said stock. For example, if you were interested in Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST), Stockpickr shares what other people who own this stock also bought -- such as, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX), or Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO).

Read more of TechCrunch's review of Stockpickr here.

According to Techcrunch, eBay Inc.'s (NASDAQ:EBAY) PayPal is preparing a new secure online storage feature called DropBox.

I read Techcrunch's report, but some things remained vague. For example, he writes that the feature could allow users to securely store files and that the storage area would be associated with the account. What kind of files, I wonder? Invoices? That would probably make sense and be a useful feature. It isn't known yet whether the feature is for merchants only or for all users.

The explanation of how the feature works, almost makes me think Web 2.0 - some sort of bookkeeping Web 2.0 perhaps? Or maybe simply offering secure storage for those who lack proper security on their computers? Or, as the commenters suggest, digital products delivery?

It's been a while since we've heard about anything new coming from PayPal (I believe since the introduction of PayPal credit cards in the UK), so it's high time we did: investors might be a little worried the company has run out of innovative creativity.

Insider Blogging looks at the blogs about our favorite companies, exposing the last legal way to get "inside information."

I'm what you might call a First Amendment scholar, having taken law-school-level courses on the subject and researched a number of such cases for my various, data-rich employers. And even though I'm a political liberal, I have a bias against extending "privacy" laws to online behavior, especially when said online behavior is conducted on very public services. I just don't agree that there is a "compelling interest" in protecting one's search behavior, especially if it can't be definitively traced back to the individual. In a free society, private enterprises should be able to do whatever they wish with the information you type into their tools; unless they've told you otherwise. In my opinion? Your behavior on a search engine is just as protectable as anything else you do in the public realm; what groceries you purchase, for instance, or what car you drive.

So I'm entirely not shocked that AOL put a bunch of customer search data (without, it must be noted, any identifying information about who did the searching) online 10 days ago. Now, apologies have been issued ("This was a screw-up, and we're angry and upset," says a spokesperson). I seem to be in the minority, however; the internet, it is horrified.

Michael Arrington at TechCrunch seems to be most shocked, saying that "The utter stupidity of this is staggering ," [emphasis his] and he claims that "the abilitiy to analyze all searches by a single user will often lead people to easily determine who the user is, and what they are up to ... many people often search on their own name, or those of their friends and family, to see what information is available about them on the net. Combine these ego searches with porn queries and you have a serious embarrassment. Combine them with "buy ecstasy" and you have evidence of a crime. Combine it with an address, social security number, etc., and you have an identity theft waiting to happen. The possibilities are endless."

Wow. That's a bit inflammatory, Michael, don't you think?

Netscape.com has been reinvented as a web 2.0 media site. A division of Time Warner, the Netscape.com homepage has been through a whole bunch of remodelling, and is now being unveiled as a mix of news reporting, blogs, and a lot of the latest social online networking apps built in.



Early buzz by websites bill it as a 'Digg-clone' (a nod to the popular news website that uses user votes to propel linked news articles or other various links up to the front page), but arbiter and monitor of all things web 2.0 Tech Crunch points out that the new Netscape uses an interesting combination of user votes and an editor who promotes highly voted stories to top of the page.

As Tech Crunch also notes, with some 811 million hits a month, a lot more people visit Netscape.com than Digg. Netscape.com stands a good chance of becoming a major chaneller of online traffic. As getting 'digged' or 'slashdotted' or 'boing boinged' is one of the ultimate badges of high traffic-dom online we might soon have to add 'netscaped' to the vocabulary.

I really am impressed with the idea of melding the social voting side of the web 2.0 world of sites like Digg with human editorial oversight. I think pure voting leads to a tragedy of the commons, where what happens is you get light fluffy interesting things pop up, but the real digging that a dedicated editor can do is lost. Slashdot's strength shows what having editors can net you. Certainly this is by far more interesting than the purely mechanical Google News approach. I do agree with Pro Blogger Darren Rowe that it is annoying to click the links on the stories and not go directly to the stories in question. I'm shepherded within Netscape.com an extra layer, but this is another chance for Netscape.com to serve ads, and for financial viability it's an obvious choice. I think, though, it does bleed out a little bit of trust for some users.

That's all the online applications considered. The biggest break and step forward, and where this new model really lifts the best of all worlds and moves forward, is that there are editors who are paid to comment on the news stories and fact check them, as well as do additional research. Fact checking mass media in public and augmenting their stories with people who are paid to do nothing but keep track of this stuff has the potential to really make an interesting new hybrid. Even though I work for Weblogs Inc. this was my first time seeing it tonight, and I'm quite taken by the whole idea. At first I did dismiss this as an AOL Digg-clone, but I think it has the potential to be a completely different animal.

Sphere, a new search engine with $3.75 million in VC funding from Hearst Publishing, Trident Capital and About.com founder Scott Kurnit, launched this week. GigaOm reviewed the site last fall, giving it a thumbs-up. Zdnet also gives it a good review, noting that is "generally speedy" and the interface is "clean and easy to navigate." Here are some other reviews:

TechCrunch:  "As great as the basic search platform is, what I like best about Sphere is in the Tools area. Install the “Sphere It” bookmarklet and click it whenever you are reading something that you’d like more information on. Sphere will analyze the page in real time and present blog search results that are relevant to that topic. It’s important to note that this is not a search to find blogs linking into that page you are viewing; rather you are finding fresh blog content that is related to the subject matter of what you are reading. I’ve tested this and find it extremely useful."

 

Yahoo! deserved its exclamation point today. The stock ran up $1.01 (more than $1!), which amounts to a 3% jump for the now $33 stock.

Message boards were jumping today as investors cheered the rally. "Yhoo, two year low, going back up!" proclaimed one poster. Another: "The lights are green for a buy!" Why such optimism? Probably because the stock was going up, of course. The message boards referred to an analyst upgrade that I could find no evidence of.

However, what I did find is a lot of talk in the blogosphere about Yahoo! Go, the company's new free DVR player fueled by its purchase of Meedio (more thoughts and links on the technology and what it means for Microsoft's media player from Techcrunch). The folks at The Fly On The Wall (subscription required) attributed Yahoo's run-up to excitement over the new service.

As our stock blogger notes, this could be a huge business for Yahoo. Try it yourself and let us know what you think. If it really changes the way we watch TV -- and once Wall Street catches on to the implications -- Yahoo shares could get more of a boost.