Internet & Media

Report: Financial backers join founders for Skype buyback

Skype's founders are reportedly encountering turbulence in striking a deal with eBay to buy back the Internet phone service, despite the financial backing from a group of large private equity firms, according to The Wall Street Journal.

KKR, Warburg Pincus, Elevation Partners, and Providence are reportedly teaming up with founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, who reportedly are interested in repurchasing their company from eBay.

But eBay and the founders' group face a wide gap on price, the Journal reported, and a deal involving the private equity firms appears unlikely.

The private equity firms are reportedly interested in kicking … Read more

Study: Less money spent per search ad

The recession is cutting into the price advertisers are willing to pay to show their ads on search engines, according to a report released Tuesday.

Advertisers bid to have their ads shown next to search results, paying only when people actually click on the ad, but on average, this cost per click (CPC) in the United States is declining on all three major search engines, according to a study by Efficient Frontier. Comparing the first quarter of 2009 to the fourth quarter of 2008, Google's CPC dropped 14 percent, Yahoo's dropped 16 percent, and Microsoft's dropped 28 … Read more

Amazon 'adult' book-delisting fail: Error or troll?

Updated 3:15 p.m. PDT April 14 with Amazon saying the problem has been fixed and 2:15 p.m. with insider saying it was manual error by Amazon worker in France and 9:45 a.m. with background on Weev and comment from sources who say he is most likely not involved in the Amazon incident.

Amazon got blasted by gay rights groups this weekend after gay and lesbian book titles were delisted from its site. Was it an internal glitch, as Amazon claims, or is an Internet troll with a vendetta responsible?

Amazon spokeswoman Patty Smith told … Read more

YouTube Korea squelches uploads, comments

Citing free-speech concerns about an anonymity-blocking law in South Korea, Google has disabled the ability to upload YouTube videos or comment on them in the country.

"We believe that it is important for free expression that people have the right to remain anonymous, if they choose," the company said in a blog post that also tells people that they can get around the restriction by using a different country's version of the site.

A Korean law requires "real-name verification" for Internet services with more than 100,000 different daily users, Google said. Under the law, … Read more

Author of Rickrolling song says Google 'exploited' him

The man who co-wrote "Never Gonna Give You Up," the 1980s song revitalized by the Rickrolling phenomenon on YouTube last year, is accusing Google of exploiting him.

The music video, featuring singer Rick Astley, has been viewed more than 150 million times on YouTube but Pete Waterman earned about $16, just enough money to buy a CD.

Waterman told U.K publication The Telegraph, that he earns more from local radio than YouTube. He also compared himself to the "exploitation of foreign workers in Dubai."

"I feel like one of those workers, because I earned … Read more

Online video viewing clears three hours per month

People watching online video in the U.S. now watch more than three hours per month, according to new data from Nielsen Online.

In February, video usage was 169 minutes on average, but in March, it rose 13 percent to 191 minutes, Nielsen said.

Also growing fast: the total video streams viewed increased 9 percent from 8.9 billion to 9.7 billion. And the number of videos per user grew 7 percent from about 70 to 74.

Since the number of minutes per user is increasing at a faster rate than the number of videos per user, that means … Read more

Yahoo shares up on news of Microsoft ad deal talks

Updated at 11:36 a.m. PST with information on Google's share price performance and an analyst note.

Yahoo shares rose in morning trading on Monday on reports that the company is in preliminary talks for an advertising partnership with Microsoft.

Yahoo's stock was up as much as 7.6 percent to $14.49 in early-morning trading, a level it hasn't seen since early October. Yahoo's gains also went against the tide of the broader markets, which were down in morning trading.

The bump in Yahoo's share price follows reports on Friday that the Internet … Read more

Amazon criticized for deranking 'adult' books

Updated at 7:15 p.m. PDT with comment from Amazon.com.

Amazon.com recently delisted from its sales ranking system gay and lesbian book titles that it deemed "adult," raising the ire of some who characterize the move as online censorship.

Author Mark R. Probst wrote on his blog Sunday that he noticed the change a few days ago:

On Amazon.com two days ago, mysteriously, the sales rankings disappeared from two newly-released high profile gay romance books: "Transgressions" by Erastes and "False Colors" by Alex Beecroft. Everybody was perplexed. Was it a … Read more

NASA's next node will be named...

Chalk one up for Steven Colbert, kind of.

NASA announced Friday afternoon that astronaut Sunita Williams will appear Tuesday on "The Colbert Report" to unveil the name of the newest node for the International Space Station.

From everything NASA has indicated, the node probably won't be named for the comedian. It likely will be dubbed "Serenity," based on the official voting results on NASA's site.

NASA ran an online contest earlier this year to name the node. The agency's official suggestions: Earthrise, Serenity, Venture, and Legacy. But NASA also (naively, perhaps) stated that … Read more