Forget the fact that privacy watchdogs are all over Google threatening legal action for not linking prominently to their privacy policynow other search companies are out to steal their bacon. Ask.com is circulating news that they're now prominently linking to their privacy policy. From the email: At Ask, we take our commitment to user privacy and data protection very seriously. We've demonstrated this not just through words, but through deeds and actions.

Microsoft will give Google a run for its money in any arena they canand the latest effort looks to be focused on television advertising, with Microsoft's acquisition of Navic , a TV advertising company. Google's slow foray into television advertising began last March, with confirmation coming last April . By January of this year, they had only 200 advertisers .

Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are still getting plenty of attention, despite the apparent finality of recent decisions to end talks between Y&M and to start a search advertising deal with G&Y . Once again, we've herded together some of the best and most insightful stories to give you the big picture. Think of it as an extended Linky Goodness with editor's commentaryyou know, like a special feature on your daily DVD of marketing news. Moving right along. . . .

I'm feeling moderately linky today, aren't you? Oh good. A fascinating interview of Matt Cutts by Eric Enge on Link Building has been making the rounds: if you haven't seen it yet, check it out! ) via (. The Detroit City Pension, who filed suit against Yahoo as disgruntled shareholders, amended the suit to look at the employee retention/severance plan that Icahn called a "poison pill," but the Delaware Chancery Court nixed an expedited trial on that matter.

Who knew? A study by OTX finds that on average teens )aged 13-17( spend 11.5 hours online a week )yep, not a day . . . no comment on how many hours I spend online a day. . . .(. Nearly a quarter of teens spend over 15 hours online per week, while 45% spent eight hours or less online. The study also looked at what teens did online.

As popular as the place for online auctions once was, eBay has slowly but steadily fallen from favor, especially among tech bloggers and reporters in 2008. But today they've announced plans for something which they hope will reverse their failing fortunes: a developer platform. eBay already has internally-developed apps in use by its 700,000 merchants. The new platform would increase the functionality of the APIand make it more portable.

Yeah, it's still Friday the 13th, and our linky goodness roundup looks at people with bad luck: Google says they don't know how to make money from YouTube . Oh, Google, we know . ) via ( Telling your potential mobile customers to go to a .mobi address? The .mobi might just confusing them . And finally, an item that might actually be positive: suck at Google Analytics? Visit Boot Camp for Google Analytics . Now, good luck!

It's time for another edition of Good Idea/Bad Idea! Good idea : Making more money. Bad idea : Making more by admitting that you suck and your competition is so good at this that you'll let them make the money for you. Actually, other than the "admitting you suck and your competition is so good," that doesn't sound like an entirely bad idea, does it? I mean, using the competition to increase your profits could potentially be a good thing. Potentially.

A couple hours later than expected , Yahoo and Google have finally announced a non-exclusive advertising agreement. Yahoo began a small test of Google advertising in April and was quickly impressed with the results â€"but then they left us hanging, waiting for an announcement for nearly two months. Yahoo's press release reassures us that they're not abandoning the Panama paid search platform: The agreement enables Yahoo! to run ads supplied by Google alongside Yahoo!

A day most of us thought would take longer to come than election day: Yahoo has officially announced the end of talks with Microsoft : With respect to an acquisition of Yahoo!'s search business alone that Microsoft had proposed, Yahoo!'s Board of Directors has determined, after careful evaluation, that such a transaction would not be consistent with the company's view of the converging search and display marketplaces,

When it comes to Linky Goodness, sometimes I even amaze myself. )And a cookie goes to the first person who can give the "correct" comeback to that!( The French are doing away with e-mail. And email. And even electronic mail. Instead, it'll be called courriel . Which is actually pretty cool, since it's from "courrier electronique" )'electronic mail'(. )If you're wondering "Can they do that?" the answer is yes . The French language has an academy,

Some couples just never seem to tire of bickering . Their constant squabbles make small children look mature . Because I know you haven't had enough of this drama lately, this is another one of those stories. So, to get us all up to speed: prominent Yahoo shareholder Carl Icahn proposed a proxy board, probably to oust Jerry Yang and take a Microsoft deal. He says Yahoo's employee severance plan )which would be triggered by a takeover or merger( is a poison pill.

I still say we need a linky goodness theme song. Yes? Cue Alice Cooper: Summer break is starting here in the US and Hitwise reports that Social networks are on the rise . So much for the impending death of Facebook ? Flash site intros: I hate them, you hate them. Now Google is offering a "Skip Intro" link right in search results . Pretty. Will Google come out with a WebKit-based GBrowser?

You could probably name at least one prank that you've seen on YouTube that was filmed specifically to get attention on the video sharing site. In the last year or so, it seems that some of these pranks have gone from mostly harmless hijinks to blatant violence and criminal activity. Who hasn't seen clips from the beating of a cheerleader by eight of her classmates on the evening news?

Oh, it's linky, and it's good. And it's Monday, so I know you need it. Unless it's Tuesday by the time you read this, I guess. Scrapers causing you indexing woes? Google Webmaster Central is here to help with a post on Duplicate content due to scrapers . No surprise: Carl Icahn and Yahoo are still sniping, with Icahn's latest letter insisting he does have a credible plan for Yahoo's future , and Google is leaving Yahoo in the dust. Welcome to the industry,

At the annual shareholder meeting a month ago, Google promised new YouTube ad formats that would be neither pre-roll or post-roll. Turns out " Buzz targeting " wasn't the only method they're implementing, at least according to an Ad Age article today: Professional content producers " those who come equipped with their own ad-sales teams " are now able to sell advertising on their YouTube channels.

Things are going from bad to worse between Yahoo and Carl Icahn . In Round 2 of letters this week, Yahoo and Icahn repeat many of the same arguments, but they're really getting snippy now. Sigh. I'm getting too tired of the ugliness to try to wade through and pluck out the "good" parts, but here's the gist of the interchange: ICAHN: Liar, liar, pants on fire. The employee "retention" plan is a walkout and a poison pill; sell to Microsoft for $34.

What a difference a blog makes. Last Tuesday, The New York Times Bits Blog covered Google's efforts to join the Network Advertising Initiative )a group that sets standards in collecting data in advertising; DoubleClick helped to form the NAI(. The NAI requires members to link to their privacy policies clearly and conspicuously; this is usually taken to mean on the home page. Google refuses: Larry Page, the company's co-founder,

Two strikes against Yahoo chief Jerry Yang: there appears to be a growing movement to take him out of the top position at Yahoo. Carl Icahn, who received approval to purchase more Yahoo shares last week, already attempted to file a proxy slate to replace the whole board, which would have included ousting Yang. Although his efforts have been rebuffed thus far , Icahn continues to fight the good fight, according to the Wall Street Journal today. Mr. Icahn . . .

The first linky goodness of a new month. If that's not enough to A great account of why Jenn Laycock is a great person we need to be careful what we blogand how we respond to criticism in the blogosphere . Warning: hug factor = high. Looks like Wal-mart is testing free online classifieds with Oodle. Who will be hurt worse: newspapers or craigslist? A Canadian privacy watchdog has filed a complaint against Facebook for violating privacy laws ,