It's time for charitable organizations to dust off their camcorders and put on their thinking caps. YouTube and See3 Communications have partnered for the second time to present the DoGooder Nonprofit Video Awards, a competition that will grant the winners cash, publicity, and a new gadget. More specifically, a post on the YouTube Blog explained that the contest is meant to be "a celebration of the best non-profit video on the site." And the prizes include $2,500,

Although it arguably doesn't need much more support at this point, popular social network Facebook now has the backing of one of Silicon Valley's most respected venture capital firms. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers is said to be investing about $38 million at a valuation of $52 billion. Sabrina Willmer reported this morning, "The venture capital firm . . .

As a rule, Google doesn't put out press releases when it fails to acquire companies, making a new rumor difficult to confirm. But the search giant may have tried to purchase an advertising firm called Admeld, and, despite having a solid reputation and more cash than many countries, been unsuccessful. Of course, Google probably didn't bring every penny of its $35.0 billion )as of December 31st( to the bargaining table. Jay Yarow and Nicholas Carlson explained today,

Earlier this week, Google Vice President of Engineering Vic Gundotra raised a few eyebrows by calling Nokia and Microsoft "turkeys" on Twitter. That jab apparently wasn't aimed at all of Nokia's workers, however, as someone else at Google has now extended an offer of employment. Aidan Biggins, a technical recruiter who's based in London, made a pretty straightforward grab for Nokia software engineers earlier today. As you can see below, he tweeted ,

The advantages of Google's Street View program, which critics have sometimes said invades privacy and aids burglars, will now be weighed against the security demands of one of the world's most well-protected countries. Israeli authorities should soon decide whether or not to let Google take pictures of their two biggest cities. Ayala Tsoref and Zvi Zrahiya reported earlier today,

The passage of time doesn't seem to be working in Google's favor when it comes to the company's proposed acquisition of ITA Software. More than six months after the deal was announced, three additional lawmakers have decided that extra scrutiny is needed. Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster, Representative Howard Coble, and Representative Thomas Petri all wrote to Assistant Attorney General Christine Varney to express their concerns.

Groupon employees might want to look for the quality of coffee at their workplace to improve in the near future. This afternoon, Groupon announced that Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks, has joined its board of directors. Groupon got an unspecified amount of money from a VC firm, too. Let's cover the funding news first, since there's not much to say. Groupon only explained in a statement, "Maveron LLC, a venture capital firm co-founded by Mr. Schultz,

Rumors have indicated that Google could acquire a company called Next New Networks since at least December, and as of now, neither company has anything to announce. A new round of reports has surfaced, however, indicating that the purchase might soon occur. The acquisition would make sense in a number of ways. First, whether or not you've heard of Next New Networks , it's rather big. The company claims to have scored 1.5 billion views, more than 5 million subscribers,

People who happen to own both Sonos multi-room music systems and Android phones are in for treat. Today, Sonos announced an app called the Sonos Controller for Android, and it'll grant individuals precise control over the different system components. An official statement promised, "With the award-winning Sonos S5 in any room and an Android phone in hand, music lovers will enjoy an unmatched wireless music experience in the home.

Heads up, Yahoo watchers. On April 1st, the company's board of directors will undergo a change, with longtime board member Eric Hippeau resigning his post. David Kenny, the president of Akamai, will then join the group. To first give some info on the departing member: Hippeau's been on Yahoo's board of directors since 1996. He's also served as CEO of the Huffington Post since 2009. Now, however, he's leaving behind both positions to join Lerer Ventures. As for Kenny,

No one's claimed a sale is going to take place - much the opposite, in fact - but if new rumors are to be believed, two very important corporations are interested in paying top dollar for Twitter. Facebook and Google have supposedly both been involved in discussions in which figures as high as $10 billion came up. A Wall Street Journal article stated this morning, "Executives at both Facebook Inc. and Google Inc., among other companies,

This year's Super Bowl generated a whole lot of chatter. Forgotten lyrics, funny )and controversial commercials(, and the football game itself continue to grab headlines days later. It may or may not surprise you, then, that Super Bowl XLV helped set a record when it came to sports-related tweets. A post on the official Twitter Blog announced this afternoon, "[D]uring the final moments of the game, fans sent 4,

The way in which it's done so is a bit unusual, but the venture capital firm founded by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz has thrown its weight behind Twitter. A report's indicated Andreessen Horowitz spent something like $80 million to buy into the company. Kara Swisher wrote this afternoon, "Andreessen Horowitz has invested more than $80 million in Twitter via purchasing stock in secondary markets." She then continued, "The move is an interesting one,

Whoever's in charge of printing Microsoft employees' business cards is sure to be loading the machines with some of the best paper and ink available. Microsoft announced today that Satya Nadella has been promoted, gaining the title "President of Microsoft's Server and Tools Business." Nadella used to be a senior vice president, and was previously in charge of the Online Services Division. That made him responsible for some very important things,

Facebook's ad sales in Asia should soon pick up by a significant amount. The company's opened a new office in Hong Kong, and it means to make sure local firms learn all about using social media to reach potential customers. This undertaking might not be immediately successful. The Hong Kong office is only Facebook's second sales office in Asia )the other's in Singapore(, so companies could need a little while to perform tests and get used to Facebook's way of doing things.

Twitter employees who like to plan for the future might want to start researching the price of mace, tasers, and/or stab vests. Rumors indicate that the mayor of San Francisco intends to offer Twitter a deal on office space, only the space is located in a less-than-pleasant part of town. Matt Baume explained yesterday, "Ed Lee is expected to announce tax credits targeted specifically at companies like Twitter . . . . Twitter has expressed interest in moving out of the city,

Assuming it didn't already, OpenX should definitely have Google's attention now. The company launched an updated version of its OpenX Enterprise ad technology today, and in the process, announced that it's secured Groupon and Orange )the telecommunications entity( as customers. An OpenX spokesperson explained in an email to WebProNews, "OpenX's new platform, the company's Software as a Service ad serving product for large publishers,

When it comes to ordering food at exotic restaurants, meeting foreign exchange students, or perhaps translating a non-subtitled line from a movie, iPhone owners are no longer at a serious disadvantage compared to their Android-using peers. This afternoon, Google released the official Google Translate for iPhone app. This represents a major upgrade from the basic Google Translate HTLM5 app that was launched in 2008. A post on the Google Mobile Blog explained,

Sometime this summer, the latest version of Yahoo Search BOSS )Build Your Own Search Service( will launch, and on March 1st, Yahoo intends to provide lots more technical details. But this morning, Yahoo shared what many developers really need to know: pricing info, along with its search advertising and branding policies. We'll go ahead and paste Yahoo's full table of pricing info below so that you can have a look at it.

If the people behind Bing happened to make gaining market share a New Year's resolution, they got off to a great start. Experian Hitwise released new stats this morning, and the firm found that Bing's market share increased by a significant amount between December and January. Bing's market share rose from 10.60 percent in December to 12.81 percent in January, according to Experian Hitwise. That makes for a month-over-month gain of 20.85 percent, which is quite remarkable.