Internet News

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Australian and Canadian competition authorities have approved the Internet search and advertising partnership between Yahoo! and Microsoft, the companies said Tuesday.

The ongoing holiday selling season -- both online and in the malls -- will enter the home stretch with the celebration of Thanksgiving, and eBay wants to be ready.

The top search result for First Lady Michelle Obama via Google images is a crude manipulation adding ape features to her face. And Google says there's nothing it can do about it.

Joost, a provider of online TV, movies and music, has received a boost. The company, which operates out of offices in the U.S., the U.K., and the Netherlands, has been acquired by Adconion.

Black Friday is only days away, and while early sales have been heating up this year, the day after Thanksgiving will still be a day for big bargains. If you haven't already, you should get warmed up for the big shopping day by checking out PC World's 10 Fascinating Facts (they're really tips) for Black Friday 2009, 8 tech tools to keep you on top of this year's deals, and some online shopping pointers from Black Friday pros.

NEW YORK - Barnes & Noble Inc. and Borders Group Inc., the nation's two largest brick-and-mortar book sellers, both posted quarterly losses Thursday and forecast a difficult holiday season, saying competition from discount chains and online retailers is stiffening.

Google is the leader in online search and search-based advertising, and recent acquisitions are designed to expand the vast Google empire. Critics take exception to Google undercutting traditional marketing channels, but the evolving advertising landscape levels the playing field for small and medium businesses.

Criminals today can hijack active online banking sessions, and new Trojan horses can fake the account balance to prevent victims from seeing that they're being defrauded.

NEW YORK - The struggling online video startup Joost, begun with much fanfare by the creators of Skype and Kazaa, has been sold to an online advertising company.

On the heels of Google's Teracent acquisition, TiVo has announced a deal of its own with the search giant. TiVo has entered into an audience-research agreement with Google to empower the Google TV Ads platform.

OTTAWA (AFP) - Canadian Internet service providers will be required to report online child pornography to police under proposed legislation the government unveiled Tuesday.

iTunes' top 10 selling singles and albums of the week ending Nov. 23, 2009:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Apple iTunes on Tuesday began featuring downloads of live concerts by about 20 artists who are promoted by Live Nation.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Adconion Media Group announced Tuesday it has acquired the assets of Joost, an online video portal from the founders of Skype that failed to live up to its pre-launch buzz.

STRASBOURG (AFP) - The European parliament approved Tuesday a major overhaul of EU telecoms law aimed at boosting the rights of European mobile phone and Internet users and protection against access restrictions.

As it struggles to reinvent itself, AOL has the savvy, technology and assets to succeed, but may not have the time, according to a former executive of the company. "AOL has quite a number of hidden gems and Internet properties that many users don't even know are part of the brand," says Jules Polonetsky, who was AOL's chief privacy officer and a senior vice president from 2002 to 2008. "That includes dozens of the most highly visited blogs, like the leading technology blog Engadget, that draw substantial advertising revenue."

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Google is running advertisements to explain the appearance of racist and anti-Semitic material in search results, including a picture which depicts US First Lady Michelle Obama as a monkey.

Navigating your way out of town for Thanksgiving got easier for more Android users, thanks to Google. In a blog post

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - In its bid to make TV advertising more accountable -- and to sell more of it through its online auction service -- Google has teamed up with TiVo, the companies are set to announce Tuesday.

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Micro-blogging site Twitter is interested in making more acquisitions as it continues to grow in popularity, co-founder Biz Stone said on Tuesday.

San Francisco - Microsoft SharePoint 2010 is a major upgrade from SharePoint 2007 in several areas. It has a much improved user interface, especially for online editing. It supports more browsers. It does a better job of integrating with Microsoft Office. It provides more opportunities to developers and designers, as well as to shops that might want to consolidate other products (such as blogs and wikis and business applications) with SharePoint.

A hacker who posted a fake message on the Web site of China's famous Shaolin Temple repenting for its commercial activities was just making a mean joke, the temple's abbot was cited as saying by Chinese state media Monday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp has had talks with News Corp about a tie up, which would involve News Corp getting paid to take its news websites off Google Inc, a source familiar with the matter said on Sunday.

Microsoft Monday night issued a security advisory that provides customers with guidance and workarounds for dealing with a zero-day exploit aimed at Internet Explorer.

The story headlined "Sanyo delays increase in solar cell production" and posted Nov. 17 has been removed from the wire. Online editors are asked to immediately remove the story from Web sites and print editors are asked to not use the story in future editions. Questions regarding the story should be directed to Marc Ferranti, IDG News Service executive news editor.

Google's gobbling up another advertising company, the search giant has announced. Google will acquire Teracent, a Silicon Valley startup specializing in "intelligent display advertising." Yep -- that means more online ads customized specifically for your visit.

Have a laptop or netbook and want to get more out of it? You're not alone. We've experienced the frustration of trying to keep data or bookmarks on a portable synchronized with those of a desktop PC or other laptops. We've struggled with diminishing battery life. We've needed assistance getting connected at hotspots or staying safe once online. And we've wondered how to take full advantage of USB flash drives.

BOSTON (Reuters) - Hackers have built a virus that attacks Apple Inc's iPhone by secretly taking control of the devices via their Internet connections, security experts said.

Microsoft's decision engine Bing may get the push it needs to better compete with search-engine giant Google. News Corp., a global media company and publisher of several news outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones, and Fox, and online networks such as MySpace.com may pull its search content listings from Google and move them to Bing.