WebProNews

Selling Your Soul On The Internet Is Hell

Things aren't cool anymore once everybody starts doing them, that's the Law of Cool*. The same applies to selling one's immortal soul on the Internet, which has entered let's-throw-a-toga-party-like-they-did-on-Animal-House status**.  Our latest soul peddler is from New Zealand, who learned like others before him that hosted auction websites don't want anywhere near his soul or lack thereof.

Microsoft Still Playing Footsie With Yahoo

Getting pandas to mate couldn't be much more difficult than getting Microsoft and Yahoo to. Mr. Softy makes a grand display, woos, is rejected; Yahoo changes heart, does a strip tease, but Mr. Softy's pride is too wounded. The insider drama revealed in a lengthy report by the Wall Street Journal plays out like a pair of lovers flirting with disaster one way or the other.

Orbitz Partners With MSN On Travel Services

Orbitz Worldwide has announced that it has signed a multi-year agreement with Microsoft to be the online travel agency for MSN.com's travel portal in the U.S. and the UK.Orbitz.com replaces the Microsoft founded Expedia in the U.S. and affiliate ebookers.com will serve the MSN UK site.Orbitz says the deal could attract 3.5 million visitors per month to Orbitz through MSN Travel. Orbitz did not offer data on how many visitors it could bring to its ebookers site.

Microsoft Confirms Powerset Acquisition

Satya Nadella, the senior vice president of Microsoft's Search, Portal & Advertising Platform Group, isn't afraid to admit that the current crop of search engines suffer from some problems.  Nadella seems to be hoping, however, that his company's acquisition of Powerset will help it solve them.

Nobody Went Public Last Quarter

For the first time in thirty years, Wall Street saw a quarter come and go with no companies going public. The second quarter of 2008 proved to be a disappointing one all around. Adding on to residual distrust from the dotcom bust, venture capitalists and investment firms are reluctant to debut their startups to the public market during such a weak climate. Memories of Vonage's embarrassing public offering two years ago don't help the situation; venture capitalists feel going public during the current market's mood would be anticlimactic.

GoDaddy Auction VP Gets Slashdot Treatment

There's nothing improper about the VP of aftermarket domain auctions bidding up domain prices, says GoDaddy, but they've banned employees from participating in the future anyway, just to make everybody happy. And likely, to make the all the dirty looks go away. What looked like an idle comment in NamePros.com's domain forum stirred up the hornets nest a bit. The comment from a senior forum member going by Stevie read this way:

Google Signs Major Map Deal With Tele Atlas

Thanks to a new deal, it doesn't look like Google's going to be running low on maps anytime soon.  For the next five years, Tele Atlas will be providing the search giant content in over 200 countries.

Yahoo: Icahn's Slate is Not the Right Answer

Yahoo's annual shareholder meeting in August should be a fiery one. The company filed a presentation today imploring stockholders to support Yahoo's Board of Director nominees. As has been the pattern for communication between Yahoo executives and Carl Icahn, the presentation is blunt and clear in how CEO Jerry Yang and company feel about Icahn's proposals. They might as well have written, "Tell Carl to eff off, will ya?"

Microsoft Announces Plan To Acquire MobiComp

A little less than one week ago, Steve Ballmer ruled out a making-up-for-Yahoo acquisition spree.  This afternoon, his word remains technically good, since MobiComp is just one company and has little to do with traditional search and advertising.

Yahoo Rejected Microsoft Over Exclusivity Request

Even though Microsoft offered Yahoo a $9 billion deal to gain control of its search business, Yahoo would have been stuck with Microsoft as a search partner for ten years.