Ed Oswald

As was widely rumored in the 24 hours preceeding the announcement, Ask Jeeves announced that it will acquire Trustic, the company that owns and operates Bloglines. As part of the deal, Bloglines will still remain a separate Web entity. However, Ask Jeeves users will see greater integration with the service across the rest of the search engine's properties.

"Bloglines is not only a market leader in feed aggregation and blog search, but it is truly one of the most useful and addictive services on the entire Web. We are excited about providing Bloglines with the resources to grow its service and help it reach a broader audience," said Jim Lanzone, Ask Jeeves' senior vice president of search properties.

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At a convention of hackers on the East Coast over the weekend, a security flaw was reported in non-Microsoft browsers that could allow someone to spoof the Web site of a real company simply by adding code to a link.

The ASCII coding is used by computers to translate a numerical code into an alphabetical letter. In the case of domain names, it is being used for the International Domain Name (IDN) specification in order to allow domains to be typed with country-specific characters such as the Spanish "ñ" or German "ü."

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The more a commercial "walked the finest line of taste" as TiVo's Matt Wisk put it, the more popular it was, at least according to TiVo's yearly analysis of Super Bowl highlights.

An advertisement that aired during the first quarter by Internet domain registrar GoDaddy.com had the highest replay activity of any commercial. The occurrence of a "wardrobe malfunction" within GoDaddy ad was the highest replayed commercial moment in the game.

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In an attempt to counter Apple iTunes' Pepsi song giveaway, Microsoft announced that its MSN Music service will give away one free song to U.S. customers from February 8 to 12 leading up to the Grammy Awards.

The free track will be the MSN Music team's choosing of what it believes is the top pick for pop, rock, rap/hip-hop, soul/R&B, or country, with a different genre highlighted each day.

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The FBI Friday shut down its e-mail system, which is run by a private company, after it had discovered a possible hacking attempt. If the system was indeed compromised, it could pose a potential security problem due to the sensitive nature of some e-mails. However, officials said the possibility of an actual security breach was low.

"We use these accounts to communicate with you folks, view Internet sites, and conduct other non-sensitive bureau business such as sending out press releases," Special Agent Steve Lazarus, the FBI's media coordinator in Atlanta, said in an e-mail describing the problem. Mail sent through the system for case files was on another server and remained unaffected, officials said.

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A source within Sony has said there is a good chance that Sony's PlayStation Portable unit may miss its late March target for release in Europe. Publicly, Sony is denying any delay in the launch, only saying that the PSP will ship "in the spring." Sony yesterday announced a March 24 release date for United States gamers.

"There's a possibility that the launch could be delayed," the source told Reuters. If Sony's new portable is delayed, it would be the second time the launch date has been pushed back. The PSP was originally slated to debut in Europe during Christmas.

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Sony Online Entertainment (SOE), the new gaming spin-off of the electronics giant, announced Thursday that it has hired several Microsoft executives to staff its new Seattle game development studio.

The new studio will be led by Matt Wilson, who had been with Microsoft for over 10 years before leaving to create his own gaming company called FireAnt along with fellow Redmond employee Ed Fries.

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Yahoo late Wednesday introduced Y!Q, a contextual search feature that will allow developers to embed search results into the content of a Web page. The plug-in will look for keywords from the page it's on and display results from Yahoo's search engine without the need for the user to initiate a search query.

"The fundamental idea was to supplement search queries with context. So instead of having to spend a lot of time searching and assembling all the information you're after, this contextual search technology could incorporate that context to find the most relevant results," Yahoo's Jeremy Zawodny wrote in the Yahoo Search Blog.

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Sony announced Thursday that its PlayStation Portable will be available in retail stores on March 24. The unit will be released in a "Value Pack" for $249.99 USD and will include several accessories.

The Value Pack includes a 32MB Memory Stick Duo, headphones with a remote control, a battery pack, AC adaptor, a cleaning cloth and protective soft case, as well as a UMD disc including multiple non-interactive game demos.

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Michael Robertston could only stay out of the digital music business for so long. The former CEO and founder of MP3.com, as well as the Linspire operating system and SIPphone voice over IP phone company, announced MP3tunes Wednesday. The online music service hopes to attract users with a twist: DRM-free downloadable tunes.

Instead of simply joining an already competitive market, Robertson is targeting music buyers turned off by non-standard audio formats and digital rights management (DRM). In the process, Robertson hopes to rekindle the consumer freedom surrounding MP3.

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Microsoft employees aren't being true to their school. At least that's what a high level Redmond executive who chose to remain anonymous told Wired on Wednesday. According to the source, people walking around Microsoft's campus can be seen with the trademark white headphones of Apple's iPod - and it's getting under the skin of management.

"About 80 percent of Microsoft employees who have a portable music player have an iPod," the source told Wired. "It irks the management team to no end."

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Kazaa creator Sharman Networks switched strategies in the ongoing file sharing case in Australian court Tuesday. According to courtroom reports, Sharman lawyers attempted and were denied a motion to suppress some 30 Altnet and four Sharman Networks documents, which contained evidence that could damage to the P2P network's case.

Included in the documents is the bill of sale for Kazaa to Sharman Networks from Kazaa B.V. Although basically a standard legal document, it included two bizarre clauses, considering that at the time of sale in 2002, the legality of P2P networks was already in question.

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Sun unveiled its grid computing offering late Tuesday, attempting to "radically simplify" the process and make it easy for corporations to purchase computer time over a network. Sun hopes to make grid computing as easy as buying electricity and water through wires and pipes.

Using a pay-as-you-go concept, Sun will charge its customers $1 an hour per processor used and $1 each month per gigabyte of storage the company requires. According to Sun, some 10,000 processors are online in data centers in Texas, New Jersey, Virginia, and Scotland, with more expected to go live throughout the rest of the year.

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First it was Santa, now it's Cupid. AOL, with the help of its dating property Love.com, has debuted its latest AIM Bot called Cupid. Users can use the Bot to send "IM Crushes" to friends, play games and, of course, find eligible singles in preparation for Valentine's Day.

The IM Crush feature will allow a user to send a message anonymously to another AIM user. The recipient will have three guesses to discover their secret admirer. If the person gets it right, both people will receive an IM. If he or she gets it wrong, they can find out who has a crush on them come Valentine's Day. The service is available immediately by adding "Cupid" to AIM's buddy list.

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On January 7, Microsoft enthusiast Dave Ciccone woke up to find a surprising message in his e-mail inbox: a veiled threat from the company he has evangelized for almost 5 years.

"Microsoft has received information that the domain listed above, which appears to be on servers under your control, is offering unlicensed copies of, or is engaged in other unauthorized activities relating to copyrighted computer programs published by Microsoft," the legal letter said.

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