So finally, Yahoo and Microsoft got the clearance to implement terms and conditions of their search ad deal. Both the European Commission and U.S. Dept. of Justice have approved the deal which has been on the table for quite some time now. Both companies can now start implementing some of the terms and conditions of the deal, which would probably start with Yahoo transitioning its algorithmic and paid search platforms to Microsoft.

Mobile application reMail has just been acquired by Google, and so its owner claims via a post on his blog. According to reMail founder Gabor Cselle , Google acquired reMail and that he will be joining Google as a Product Manager on the Gmail team. Actually, it's more of "rejoining", since Cselle was previously a Google employee. Anyway, Cselle also said that reMail will be discontinued as an independent entity. In fact its iteration,

Well, we knew this was going to happen. With a high user engagement and a massive userbase build up, Facebook has just slipped pass through Yahoo to become the no.2 most popular website in the U.S. Latest data from Compete.com shows that Facebook is not only raking up userbase but user engagement as well as it had  133 million unique visitors last month. Yahoo's unique visitors were pegged at 132 million, while Google still sit on top.

As expected from a controversial web service that inflicts privacy invasion, Google Buzz  just received a new "friend" in the Canadian Office of the Privacy Commissioner.   A spokesperson for the said Canadian government office said that they are now investigating whether Google Buzz is indeed violating or may have violated Canadian privacy laws .

Google seemed to have quietly implemented MySpace Real-Time Search API just now. The announcement was actually made by MySpace so I checked out the Official Google Blog if there was any update about this but didn't find any.  Probably because it's too early or maybe Google just don't want to make a big fuzz about this? Anyway, the MySpace folks are pretty much excited about it nonetheless. In fact,

BBC is running a report about Google admitting to them that Google Buzz is sort of a half-baked product since it did not go through massive testing prior to release. The report was quite surprising not really because of the testing flaws but because of Google admitting it. Anyway, according to the report,

The Google Buzz folks must have heard or read  all the noise about  Buzz kills that they are now answering some of these.  So Google a nnounced three tweaks that it hopes to address some of the major concerns of the millions of Gmail users who jumped into the buzz hype.   First of these tweaks is about auto-following. So instead of making you automatically follow people in your Gmail contacts, Google will instead give you a chance to select only those you want to follow.

As of this minute, Google said that there has been more than 9 million buzz created two days after Google Buzz was launched. This could probably has grown to more than that figure by now. Interestingly, the sudden surge of users happened even with the prophecy of doom coming from critics and analysts. Google Buzz is a buzz kill, too noisy, too disorganized ' yada yada yada. As much as I like Google Buzz )especially Buzz for the Nexus One (,

Tipped off by a reader to Philipp of Google Blog0scoped is a new Google Maps feature that we are all familiar with - Google Maps Lab. If you check out Google Maps right now, you can see the familiar New Labs Icon. Clicking that icon will bring up the Google Maps Lab currently containing 9 experimental features. Like Gmail Lab, features in Google Maps are opt-in, that is you can select only the features which interest you.

Much as I don't want to get excited about this, I'm afraid that my initial impressions of Google Buzz may have been confirmed. According to the Gmail Blog , more than 9 million posts and comments have been created as millions started to jump into the latest social craze two days after it was launched. Looks like Google made a hit with Google Buzz. The Google folks must be smiling right now as they might have really done something good in Google Buzz. But then,

Google just put a dot to  its desire to become part of the social sphere with its latest acquisition - the social search engine founded by some ex-Googlers called Aardvark . Although both companies have not yet issued an official statement about the deal, the buyout was confirmed through an email sent by Aardvark CEO Max Ventilla to TechCrunch confirming that indeed, Google has bought their company. The price - $50 million.

Google is at it again. Dreaming the impossible dream and planning to achieve something no matter what that cost may be, or even perhaps whether it is going to be a boom or fail.  Believe it or not, Google wants to become one of the world's provider of the fastest broadband internet service which it plans to accomplish through fiber networks. Google is planning to build and test ultra high speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the U.S.

Since I'm currently so into the Nexus One right now, exploring the nifty features of Google Buzz for mobile, let me follow up my previous post with another piece about Google's mobile phone undertakings. This time, lets look into the recently released comScore report showing that trend in the smartphone industry from October-Deember 2009. According to comScore ,  US mobile users have been going into text messaging,

While waiting for Google to activate Google Buzz on my Gmail account, I decided to check out   Google Buzz for Mobile on my Nexus One. I would have to say that Google did a pretty fast job of activating the mobile version rather than the web version of Google Buzz. So, the first thing I checked was the mobile web app at buzz.google.com and there it was a simple interface with some nifty features that you can play around with. The main screen contains two boxes of links.

Do you hate the Google Street View car for its supposed invasion of your privacy? Looks like this is what drove members of the group Free Art & Technology )FAT( when they've attached a GPS device to the Street View car containing Google's camera used for photographing streets in Berlin. So, now with the use of Google Maps, the group were able to track down the whereabouts of the Google Street View car in real-time .

Well, what do you know? After the FCC formally sent letters to various mobile operators including Google about the high early termination fees that they are charging consumers, Google seemed to be the first to heed FCC's call.  So, if you got you're Nexus One with the T-Mobile contract you can now cancel the deal earlier than the 24-months lock-in period. But that's not after paying Google a $150 termination fee, lower than the previous $350 ETF.  However,

It's a few minutes before the official kick-off of Super Bowl XLIV. If you're not at the Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida and prefer to watch the game at home, here are some of the ways you can watch the Super Bowl online pre-game coverages. National Football League's Official Super Bowl XLIV Website Here's where you can find every bits and pieces of the Super Bowl XLIV action.

It's a few hours before the Super Bowl XLIV kicks-off but  aside from the game later, fans are also looking forward to the commercials that will be aired during the extravaganza. After all, it takes a lot of money just to get a 30 second slot from the prestigious event. And major brands have competed just to air their commercials and  brand product endorsements with some even employing celebrities to do the work for them.

Microsoft and Facebook are expanding their mutual cooperation some more as announced on the Bing Search blog .  Specifically Microsoft will continue to provide Facebook users full access to Bing features through the Microsoft-powered Facebook search facility. So, soon instead of just giving set of links, Facebook will now provide richer answers as well as other tools to enable Facebook members make faster and smarter decisions. In addition,

Yahoo and Monster Worldwide has just announced that Yahoo HotJobs will be acquired by Monster for a $225 million buy-out.  Yahoo has been looking to sell the Yahoo Hotjobs for quite some time now and finally somebody is willing to take it in and pay Yahoo for it. In case you're interested to know, Yahoo HotJobs is not really part of Yahoo's main portal business. So,