Seattle — Microsoft Corp. launched a redesigned MSN portal optimized for mobile phones on Sunday, stepping up its offering at a time when more powerful devices increase the demand for richer content on handsets. The new MSN Mobile service available in the US right now at http://mobile.msn.com and offers all sorts of stuff like news, […]

Microsoft has dropped the “IPTV” moniker from its Internet protocol television middleware, revamping the system “Microsoft Mediaroom.” Microsoft has updated and revamped its IPTV software platform offering with the newly launched Microsoft Mediaroom.

Microsoft takes small stake in Chinese TV maker as part of Internet venture Shanghai — Microsoft Corp. has agreed to pay 94 million yuan ($12.3 million) for a stake in Sichuan Changhong Electric Co. and will form a cooperative alliance with the TV and electrical appliance maker, joining a race to profit from the Web’s […]

Proposed online-advertising company purchases by Google and others are keeping FTC acquisition reviewers busy. New York — The Federal Trade Commission will review three of the major internet ad acquisitions of late, according to a person with knowledge of the deals.

Shanghai — Microsoft Corp. has agreed to pay 94 million yuan ($12.3 million) for a stake in Sichuan Changhong Electric Co. and will form a cooperative alliance with the TV and electrical appliance maker, joining a race to profit from the Web’s growing status as a channel to distribute movies and other programs, the Chinese […]

Top online video service YouTube will soon test a new video identification technology with two of the world’s largest media companies, Time Warner Inc. and Walt Disney Co. San Francisco — YouTube founder Steve Chen said Thursday the Internet giant is testing video-fingerprinting technology to guard copyrights of material posted at its globally popular website. […]

Google Analytics — An updated version of Google’s Web site analysis service, graduated from beta recently with several new features added to help site administrator’s measure traffic. Google Analytics began life as Urchin On Demand, a hosted Web analytics service offered by San Diego-based Urchin Software Corp. Google acquired Urchin in March 2005 and initially […]

Apple’s iTunes continues to expand its presence overseas, landing a high-profile deal to make iTunes the default music service of Yahoo Japan. San Francisco — The Japanese website Yahoo Music said Thursday that it had tied up with Apple’s iTunes music store, where more than 4 million songs are on sale to allow iPod users […]

A tiff over competing online payment systems leads the auction site to kill ads and the search engine to cancel a party. Los Angeles — Online auctioneer eBay Inc. has pulled its advertising from search engine company Google Inc.’s AdWords network in the United States this week because it was mad about Google’s encroaching on […]

Flickr is graduating from language school — Says salut, hola, ciao, hallo and three more… San Francisco — Flickr, the popular online photo-sharing site owned by Yahoo Inc., said on Tuesday it is moving to further internationalize its service by creating versions in seven major languages besides English to help the global Flickr community more […]