Written By Reprise Media | May 11, 2006 | Share This |

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Maybe you thought we were going for the Saget jokes, but no; we’re just dealing out a fine hand of net news.

So wearing Microsoft’s class ring is probably out of the question Last week, a Wall Street Journal column speculated that Microsoft and Yahoo! might decide to pursue a financial conjoinment of some kind, perhaps by Microsoft acquiring a stake in Y! Says Yahoo? No beans, according to the Financial Times. Yahoo! Chief Executive Terry Semel said, “I will not sell a piece of search - it is like selling your right arm while keeping your left.” He added some fighting words, as well: “My impartial advice to Microsoft is that you have no chance…the search business has been formed.” Well, then.

Keep your 60 million bucks, big guy Google recently elected to settle a class-action lawsuit with its advertisers that would spread 60 million dollars to those that have been victimized by click fraud - and $30 million to the lawyers. A judge approved, but the story doesn’t quite end there. A raft of advertisers sees the figure as a little low, and they’re suing to block the settlement. It’s a risky gambit, as Techdirt’s Mike points out: “it’s quite possible they’d get nothing at all in a full trial where Google could lay out all the steps they take to prevent click fraud, while also noting that the real liability should be on those doing the actual click fraud.”

ICANN: You don’t have to put on the red light In March, internet regulator ICANN delayed a decision on whether to approve a new domain specifically for pornographic websites (it would have been a dot followed by three of these: ‘x’). Today, the AFP reports that ICANN has recanted its previous support for the so-called online red light district, citing “unprecedented” complaints and quashing the domain in a 9-5 vote. Sex sites can call off the moving trucks; they won’t have to relocate from their dot-com neighborhoods.

Free MP3s: so happy together Lifehacker points to The Hype Machine today, a site that collects MP3s posted to “the best blogs about music.” Don’t see your favorite musician? You can subscribe to a Hype Machine ‘podcast’ for any artist and have their next song delivered to iTunes when (and if) Hype Machine picks it up.

Silent, but deadly…actually not that silent, either For the layman who’s still confounded by the concept of net neutrality - the idea that broadband network operators shouldn’t discriminate against content by charging higher access fees to certain content providers - well, maybe this ninja can explain things. (via Search Engine Journal)

Topics: Technology |