Internet News

NEW YORK (Reuters) - IAC Corp's Ask.com is overhauling its Web search engine to deliver faster results and improved relevance as it bids to win share from market leader Google Inc.

THE LAYOFFS: EBay Inc. is eliminating 1,600 jobs, about 10 percent of its work force. The online auction site operator will cut 1,000 full-time employees and let several hundred temporary and part-time workers go. It will also leave some open positions unfilled.

LISBON (Reuters) - A Portuguese online bank unveiled a novel interest rate deal Monday by letting clients bet on the outcome of the U.S. presidential election.

LONDON (Reuters) - Spending on Internet advertising in Britain grew 21 percent in the first half of 2008, propping up the total ad market which fell as cash-strapped companies cut back on marketing, a key report said.

OAKLAND, California (AFP) - Internet search engine Ask.com unveiled a revamp on Monday in a bid to increase its share of the market dominated by Google.

Just months after its launch, the magazine-sharing Web site Mygazines.com is largely cutting back on the free content it offers, after reaching a settlement agreement in a suit filed by a group of magazine publishers.

Adam Sarner, an analyst with market research firm Gartner, has projected that over 75 percent of Fortune 1000 companies with Web sites will have undertaken some kind of online social-networking initiative for marketing or customer relations purposes. But, he added in an interview with CNET News, 50 percent of those campaigns will be classified as failures.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Online auction giant eBay Inc. announced on Monday it was cutting 1,000 permanent employees and several hundred temporary workers, about 10 percent of its global workforce.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - EBay Inc plans to cut its work force 10 percent and sees third-quarter revenue hitting the low end of its forecast, though profit will exceed expectations, the online auction Web site said on Monday.

LONDON (Reuters) - Being too tired for sex is less of a problem for married Britons than for U.S. or Australian couples, and Brits place more importance on agreeing on how to handle their in-laws, online dating company eHarmony has found.

NEW YORK - Assuming your company's name isn't a verb synonymous with looking things up online, how do you get Web surfers to not just try your search engine, but also frequent it?

SAN JOSE, Calif. - EBay Inc. did a little shopping of its own on Monday, saying it would pay $1.34 billion for online payments site Bill Me Later and two Danish classified ad Web sites.

Internet auction site eBay will cut 10 percent of its workforce, or about 1,000 jobs, the company said Monday. On a more positive note, eBay also announced Monday that it will acquire online billing company Bill Me Later for $820 million in cash, plus two Danish Web properties.

A judge has ordered RealNetworks to suspend the sale of RealDVD, the controversial software that hands users the ability to copy and store films to a hard drive, according to a report published by NewTeeVee.com, a technology-news blog.

Seth Weintraub of 9to5Mac, a blogger with good sources within the Macintosh community, is reporting that Apple has invented a new manufacturing process for MacBooks.

Online bullying could be more pervasive than you think.

Just as many of you settled into your seats to watch Thursday evening's debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin, Allen Stern of CenterNetworks was attracting his own crowd on Twitter after raising a question that strikes at heart of the blogosphere.

SAN FRANCISCO, (AFP) - Google said it is postponing a planned online advertising tie-up with Yahoo to allow more time for US anti-trust regulators to consider the ramifications of the deal.

Michael Calce, aka "Mafiaboy," has written a memoir about how he temporarily shut down a handful of major Web sites and led the FBI and Royal Canadian Mounted Police on a manhunt when he was 15.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Carlos Santana is on tour and has an album coming out, but in an interview with Rolling Stone posted online on Friday the rocker said he sees himself one day heading up a church in Hawaii.

SEATTLE - A CNN-owned Web site called iReport.com, which publishes reports written by ordinary citizens, said Friday it will give the Securities and Exchange Commission information about the author of an item that claimed Apple CEO Steve Jobs had suffered a heart attack.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Google Inc and Yahoo Inc have decided to delay implementing a controversial search advertising partnership, Yahoo said on Friday.

WASHINGTON - Google Inc. agreed to delay the start of a Web advertising partnership with rival Yahoo Inc., giving U.S. antitrust regulators more time to review the deal.

Members of Congress can finally use Web sites like YouTube, after committees in both the House and Senate adopted new rules allowing members to post content outside of the .gov domain, as long as it is for official purposes.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, in its latest bid to use Internet Age technology to trounce Republican rival John McCain and connect with supporters, has released free software that turns Apple iPhones into political rallying tools.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A false Internet report that Apple Inc's Steve Jobs had suffered a heart attack briefly slammed his company's stock on Friday and raised fresh questions about the delicate relationship between traditional and new media.

Skype is answering concerns about its joint venture with TOM Online in China. A report released Thursday by Canadian human-rights activists revealed a massive surveillance system that monitors Skype messages containing words China's government deems offensive.

Advertisers and lawmakers, along with Google and Yahoo executives, are eagerly awaiting a decision from the Department of Justice on the Internet search giants' ad agreement. The DOJ is expected to decide by mid-October whether Google can provide Yahoo with search advertisements.

The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) in Washington ruled Thursday that music publishers and artists are entitled to a royalty payment of just more than nine cents for each track sold online. In addition, the CRB established a royalty rate of 24 cents for content used as ringtones.