Ed Oswald

While both companies showed growth in search queries, in the all-important matter of search share, both lost as much as Google gained during the month of October.

Google's search share climbed to 58.5 percent, up 1.5 percent from September. Conversely, Yahoo and Microsoft's share fell to 22.9 and 9.7 percent, down 0.8 and 0.6 percent respectively.

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Sony debuted Tuesday a PC version of its PlayStation Store, aimed at replacing the old download service for the PlayStation Portable.

Users of the former service will need to transition to the new service by the end of January. Instructions will be given to users on how to use the PlayStation Store and transfer their purchased content.

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A new Google-backed service aims to allow interested users to search through their own DNA to find out information about their own genetic makeup or predisposition for certain diseases.

"The mission of 23andMe is to take the genetic revolution to a new level by offering a secure, Web-based service where individuals can explore, share and better understand their own genetic information," said Linda Avey, a biopharmaceutical expert and the site's co-founder.

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AOL's new British mobile portal is said to provide an experience closer to that of the desktop portal, and should more closely match the US version.

For example, the site now allows for pages intended for desktop browsers to be transcoded to fit the screen of the mobile device being used.

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Looking to avoid a similar legal mess to that of YouTube, Yahoo on Tuesday announced that it had reached a licensing deal with Sony BMG.

The label counts among its artists such popular acts as Jennifer Lopez, the Foo Fighters, Bruce Springsteen, Celine Dion, and Britney Spears. It signed a similar deal with YouTube last year.

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In order to keep sales of its popular portable gaming system at a high level, Nintendo debuted two new DS packages for consumers, which will arrive on Friday.

The first is a gold-colored device that would include The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, while a metallic rose-colored unit would come with the game Nintendogs: Best Friends.

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Bugs or not, Mozilla on Tuesday released Firefox 3 Beta 1, the first public step towards the next significant release of the alternative browser.

The new version of Firefox is running about a quarter behind schedule, and has most recently been a target of criticism over its handling of bugs. While the company maintains that such concerns are overblown, it does appear the most significant issues have been addressed.

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Apple may find itself with one less distributor in Europe after a German court issued a restraining order against its partner T-Mobile.

The action was filed after Vodafone took exception to the Cupertino company's exclusive contract with the carrier. The restraining order prevents T-Mobile from selling the phone within the country.

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Instead of expanding into foreign markets on its own like MySpace, Facebook appears to be taking the acquisition route instead.

The Times of London reported over the weekend that the second largest social networking site had been in talks with Chinese site Zhanzuo.com, which counts about seven million users.

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A discovery buried deep within the code of some iPhone applications may be cause for concern for those who like to know who's seeing their data.

Some code-savvy users of the iPhone discovered the lines in a hidden string in at least two applications on the device, Stocks.app and Weather.app. The information is sent to a website on Apple's servers, according to the users.

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While some may view it as a sign of desperation, Sony on Monday said that it will cut licensing fees for the PS3 SDK in half to spur additional game development.

The package now costs $10,250 in the US, 950,000 yen in Japan, and 7,500 euros in Europe. With lower prices now both for the consumer in the form of a system price cut, and for the developer in the SDK, it hopefully will mean higher sales and profits for the PS3.

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The Redmond company has apparently overestimated the demand for some of its players, leaving high stocks of one model on shelves while others are difficult -- if not impossible -- to find.

Microsoft launched both new flash-based players in 4 and 8GB versions, as well as an 80GB hard-drive based model. A quick check of retailers showed ample stocks of the smaller players, but the 80GB was out of stock.

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As expected, Amazon debuted its $399 Kindle book reader at a Monday press event in New York. But will it be enough to finally help electronic books take off?

The retailer is ready to make a big deal out of the product as well: a letter from CEO Jeff Bezos greeted users visiting the Amazon.com front page beginning Monday morning. He says that Kindle was born of his interest in electronic books, and how they could be improved.

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NPD's sales numbers for the PlayStation 3 still show the console lagging its competitors badly, however it was before the price of the console dropped.

Sony cut prices on the PS3 on November 2, but the data is for the month of October. What can be gleaned from NPD's data is that Nintendo is likely selling its consoles as fast as they can ship them.

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YouTube is planning to upgrade the quality of its videos within the next three months, but it will not be high-definition video.

The social video company has been testing higher quality video, but it does not want to alienate its traditional users with long load times. YouTube provides content to everyone, co-founder Steve Chen said at the NewTeeVee conference.

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