RealNetworks, Inc., has announced that it has acquired Zylom Media Group BV, a premier distributor, developer and publisher of high-quality PC-based casual games throughout Europe, adding to a stable of "casual" computer games that is contributing a steadily growing share of the company's revenues.

The transaction valued at up to $21 million or euro 17.2 million; acquisition of Zylom Media Group will push RealNetworks heavily into the European market, matching a similar casual game push in the United States during the past two years. Real is the leading provider in the U.S. of downloadable PC casual games.

This time, it was Microsoft that was snubbed at the last minute
In 1996, America Online agreed to offer Netscape's Internet browser to its five million customers. A day later, the nonbinding agreement was shunted aside when AOL announced that it had instead chosen Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser in a $100 million deal.

America Online sealed a deal lately with Google Inc. to deepen their relationship, while leaving Microsoft Corp. as the spurned suitor.

San Francisco - After a sophisticated attack hit Twitter's users over the weekend, the micro-blogging firm is ramping up their efforts to implement a "two-factor authentication" option that would make it impossible for hackers or vandals to break into accounts - even if they acquired the passwords.

Redmond, Washington -- Relentlessly striving to expand its social presence, recently software maker Microsoft's Bing Social Sidebar, after having been updated with fresh features for the desktop and the company just announced another update that now also brings its new design to its search results pages on the iPad. This mobile version is compatible with the Safari browser, and supports all the iPads including the tablet's new mini cousin.

New York -- If you are an online reader of the New York Times, possibilities are that you received spam email advising you that you canceled your print subscription, even if you did not have one. The New York Times erroneously flooded email inboxes on Wednesday when a message destined for a few readers who had canceled their subscriptions ended up going out to millions.

Los Angeles -- This is a day many of you have been waiting for. If you have been feeling neglected of the chatty world of Facebook lately, the latest edition of the social networking site's app should make you warm and fuzzy. The Facebook app for Android has slowly but surely been improving from its formerly awful state, and today it has finally been gifted with features that users have been expecting for quite some time now, adding a Chat interface as well as push notifications to the app.

Previously, Facebook chat was only accessible through apps like previously mentioned Trillian for Android, but the official solution works quite well. Version 1.5.0 is now in the Android Market and is bundled with many gifts including chat support and push notifications, two huge things that had been missing from the software before today.

New Delhi, India -- Much has been written about the young generation joining Facebook. And undoubtedly, today it is the fastest growing social networking site online. But a unique social networking website for older Indians is becoming popular among baby boomers. Verdurez.com caters to senior internet savvy people to combat loneliness and make new friends with the click of a mouse and in the comfort of their own homes.

According to the brain behind Verdurez.com, it is India's first unique social networking website for elderly Indians. Members can blog, chat, read articles, play puzzles online, make friends, reminisce about the past, look ahead to the future, debate in Senior Indian forums and enjoy life among a community of like-minded people.

San Francisco -- Adobe Systems on Wednesday has released the Linux version of its Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR), a platform for building programs that cross the barrier between the web and your desktop, is now fully compatible with Linux operating systems, and bringing it up to speed with the versions available for Windows and Mac users.

The company has released AIR 1.5 for Linux, the first time the Linux desktop variant has made it as a production-grade, Adobe-supported release.

While AIR applications are already functioning on Windows and Mac computers, this release would mean that developers can now build a single application that will run on pretty much every major operating system.