I did a double take recently after listening to Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell acknowledge that his company was ready to lose even more money in online services in the near term, if that's what it takes to catch Google. During the company's earnings call last week, Liddell indicated that Microsoft is pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into its online advertising business, an investment he allowed would be "a drag" on the rest of the company.

via news.cnet.com

The Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center is taking its services to the web. WWRC recently launched a YouTube channel filled with videos of services offered at the center. Director Rick Sizemore says the goal for starting the YouTube channel is to reach more people across the country. He says it's not unusual for people to travel some distance to Woodrow Wilson for rehabilitation.

via whsv.com

Digg, the social voting news aggregator that is perhaps the web startup most dogged by sale rumors in all of Silicon Valley, is close to selling to Google for “around $200 million,” according to TechCrunch. Sale rumors have followed the company for years, and the company finally went out and hired dealmaking investment bank Allen & Co.

via venturebeat.com

"After seeing some applications from Google and participating in the Google Codejam (which seems to be built using the GWT), I kind of expected to see websites spring up left and right based off the GWT. Well, it's been a year and a half since they open sourced it and I have to admit that I am more than a little disappointed by its low profile in the UI community.

via tech.slashdot.org

With the slowing U.S. and global economies taking a toll on the online advertising business, Yahoo's net income dropped by nearly 19 percent in the second quarter from a year ago as revenue grew at a sluggish 6 percent rate.
Analysts said the results would do little to improve Yahoo's negotiating position with Microsoft, which has tried to buy all or part of the company.

via iht.com

Google’s on and off negotiations with Digg have been back on in a big way for the last six weeks, we’ve heard from multiple sources inside and outside of Google. The two companies have reportedly signed a letter of intent and are close to a deal that will bring Digg under the Google News property. The acquisition price is in the $200 million range, says one source.

via techcrunch.com

The medical industry is one that thrives on innovation and evolution. New procedures, medicines, diseases, and theories are released practically every day. In such an environment, the need for a website to reflect and allow for documentation is apparent. MedPedia is a new project, currently in development, that will offer an online collaborative medical encyclopedia for use by the general public.

via techcrunch.com

THE Singapore embassy in Doha has launched its new website, featuring an electronic consulate (e-consulate) information system. The website, http://www.mfa.gov.sg/doha, provides comprehensive and up-to-date information on the consular and visa services to both Singaporeans as well as members of the public residing in Qatar, an embassy spokesperson said yesterday.

via gulf-times.com

In a rare slip for Google, Yahoo and Microsoft gained share as Google lost ground in the Web search market in June, industry data released on Friday shows. Monthly data published by audience research firm comScore shows Google's share of the U.S. Web search market -- the source of half the company's revenue -- at 61.5 percent, down three-tenths of a percentage point from May.

via uk.reuters.com

Last week I attended the Twin Tech media event in Washington, D.C, and one topic that kept popping up in conversation was the issue of privacy in this relatively new world of mobile social networking. Mobile social platforms designed to keep track of users' locations are all the rage, just like VGA camera-phones were many, many moons ago.

via profy.com

CasualCafe, a developer of Facebook applications, has launched a pair of elaborate Flash games on its flagship site that it says demonstrate the company’s “browser games of uncommon size and detail”. The two games are Burdaloo, a colorful puzzle game similar to Bejewled, and Spyde Solitaire, which takes a new twist on the classic card game with changed rules and powerups.

via techcrunch.com

GitHub, the popular service for hosting Git repositories, has taken a step outside the box and improved upon the classic pastie service (place for coders to post code snippets). To do that, GitHub took the same formula that has proved successful with their repository hosting service and applied it to pasties. The result: a new service launching today at gist.github.com.

via techcrunch.com

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks: * Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVID) sees strong Q1 results driven by Guitar Hero. * Allegheny Technologies Inc. (NYSE: ATI) raised its Q2 earnings guidance ahead of its report. * Cintas Corp. (NASDAQ: CTAS) strong Q4 and full-year results included a record quarterly revenue.

via bloggingstocks.com

Stock futures were higher this morning after Bank of America joined recent financials and topped Wall Street estimates. Also pushing futures higher is a deal in the pharma sector with Roche bidding nearly $44 billion for the rest of Genentech. However, both Merck and Schering-Plough said they'll postpone reporting their financial results after the close; Apple will also be reporting results then.

via bloggingstocks.com

Seventy percent of U.S. searches in June were done on Google Inc.'s search engine, according to Web measurement figures from market research company Hitwise Pty. Ltd. In the four weeks ending June 28, Google accounted for 69.17% of all U.S. searches, up from 63.92%, or 8%, from the same period a year ago, according to Hitwise.

via keznews.com