Google on Wednesday rolled out the first third-party advertisement on its traditionally spartan homepage -- a link to download Firefox with the Google Toolbar. The promotion appears underneath Google's search box and is currently visible only to Internet Explorer users.

The search engine's ties to Firefox are nothing new; the company has hired a number of the browser's developers and has begun paying affiliates $1 for each user they get to install Firefox with Google Toolbar. The Mozilla corporation behind Firefox also makes most of its revenues from a search partnership with Google.

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One week after Chinese President Hu Jintao made a visit to the home of Bill Gates before heading to the White House, Microsoft has announced it will invest $900 million into the country. The spending includes plans to purchase $700 million in hardware from Chinese firms over the next five years.

In addition, Microsoft agreed with China's National Development and Reform Commission to invest $200 million into Chinese software companies by forming joint ventures and partnerships in the country. In return, Chinese companies will make large purchases of Windows licenses and help to stamp out piracy, which has become a major problem to China's software industry.

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AT&T on Wednesday signed an agreement with Starz to offer the movie channel's Vongo movie download service to its broadband customers. A 14-day free trial would be offered through a co-branded Web site, and AT&T would market the service through its Worldnet portal. The telecommunications company said it believed offering Vongo would help attract new customers.

Vongo charges $9.99 USD per month for access to 1,500 movie and video selections, as well as a live stream of the Starz cable channel. With the subscription comes the capability to download videos onto three compatible devices or computers. Additionally, Starz is offering select pay-per-view titles for $3.99 USD per movie. The deal with AT&T marks the first distribution partner for the Vongo service.

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A new vulnerability has been discovered within Internet Explorer's handling of the OBJECT tag that could cause the browser to crash. At first glance, the bug appears to be not much more than a nuisance, although an attack vector could not be ruled out by security experts.

Existence of the flaw has been confirmed on a fully patched version of Internet Explorer 6 running on Windows XP Service Pack 2, according to an advisory on the issue.

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Microsoft is set acquire Massive, a start-up that places ads in video games, next week in a deal estimated at $200 to $400 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. Massive's advertising clients include Coca-Cola and Honda among others, and it has deals with game publishers Ubisoft, Take-Two Interactive, and THQ.

With publishers regularly connecting their games to the Internet, dynamic ads within those games are now possible. Previously, ads were sold in static form, but they quickly would become stale as they could not be changed based on new promotions.

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Skype joined the burgeoning ringtone business Tuesday, announcing a deals with record labels EMI, Sony and Warner Music to sell song clips to customers for $1.50 each. The Internet telephone company owned by eBay will begin offering Madonna ringtones on Wednesday, with more artists slated to follow.

The ringtone business continues to flourish, raking in over $4.4 billion in 2005 alone. Skype hopes it can capitalize on the market by selling the clips to its more than 100 million users. However, unlike on their cell phones, Skype users can already import audio clips directly from their hard drives.

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Seagate on Wednesday introduced its Barracuda 7200.10, the first computer desktop hard disk to reach the 750-gigabyte storage mark. The drive, with a retail price of $559 USD, is 50 percent larger than the previous 500-gigabyte marker leader.

Initially, the drive will be released to PC makers for inclusion in new computer systems. Starting next week, it will be introduced to the general public, Seagate said.

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Vonage said Wednesday that it was partnering with British Wi-Fi provider The Cloud to offer its customers free service at any hotspot operated by the company. Owners of Vonage's mobile Wi-Fi phone would be able to use the service, the company said. The size of a large mobile phone, the $140 handset allows a Vonage subscriber to make calls anywhere with a wireless Internet connection.

The Wi-Fi service would be free to those who already pay Vonage a $14.25 per month fee to place calls to U.K and Ireland phone numbers. The Cloud has nine hotspots around the UK, with satellite service points in airports, transit stations, coffee shops, hotels, and college campuses.

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Microsoft said late Tuesday that it had spun off a social networking tool developed by its research labs into a separate company. Named Wallop, the service will be led by experienced entrepreneur and CEO Karl Jacob.

Bay Partners will provide the startup with financing, and it would be based in Silicon Valley. Initially, the company will have 12 employees, although it is unclear if any of those employees are from the Wallop project that was created at Microsoft Research.

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Responding to customer demand, TiVo on Tuesday introduced its first standalone digital video recorder with dual tuner capability. The new model will be optimized for cable households and features built-in Ethernet and a refreshed look.

The company said the first shipments would arrive at Circuit City, Best Buy, Amazon.com and its Web site on May 1. The dual-tuner model will offer 80-hours of recording time.

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Google silently added street-level mapping capabilities to a number of countries in Europe Tuesday, bringing its local search service across the Atlantic. Users can search for specific street names and addresses, as well as pull up reviews of hotels and even find metro and train stations.

Directions are also possible, and Google Maps has integrated ferry information to plot trips across a body of water. The changes come as Europe gears up for World Cup 2006 in Germany, and detailed data is primarily available for Western Europe. Users have found a number of inaccuracies, but Google will likely roll out improvements over time.

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Symantec earlier this week warned of vulnerabilities within its Scan Engine, a programming interface that allows third parties to incorporate scanning technologies into their applications. The security software maker has rated the vulnerabilities as a "medium risk."

According to the advisory, the first problem lies within an issue in authenticating Web-based logins. "Anyone with knowledge of the underlying communication mechanism can control the Scan Engine server," the notice reads.

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Groups from opposite ends of the political spectrum are coming together to press Congress to ensure that net neutrality is included into a rewrite of a telecommunications law making its way through the House of Representatives.

The SavetheInternet.com Coaliton is made of groups and individuals from both conservative and liberal persuasions. Charter members include Free Press, the Gun Owners of America, Instapundit blogger Glenn Reynolds, and Moveon.org among others.

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Microsoft's new command line shell and scripting language, known by the code-name Monad, has been given an official name: Windows PowerShell. The utility is designed to enable administrators to automate and control tasks on Windows desktops and servers.

Monad was initially slated to replace the command line in Windows with an object-oriented shell that rivals shells found on Unix systems. However, Microsoft Senior Vice President Bob Muglia said last year that it would take the company a few years to fully flesh out the technology.

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Linspire CEO Kevin Carmony announced at the Desktop Linux Summit in San Diego Monday that his company would be releasing a free variant of its Linux operating system under the brand "Freespire." The distribution will come in two flavors, one with bundled proprietary software and one entirely open source.

Freespire will be community driven and is intended to broaden the reach of Linux on the desktop. While the open source operating system has gained a strong foothold in the server market, it continues to struggle to gain acceptance among consumers. Part of the problem is a lack of drivers and compatible software.

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