Any search deal with AOL (NYSE: AOL) would start with the same given: search-advertising revenue will continue to decline as it loses access subscribers. But AOL CEO Tim Armstrong says the deal with Google to extend their search partnership through 2015 should make each search it does get more lucrative—and…

Ending months of speculation about whether AOL (NYSE: AOL) and Google (NSDQ: GOOG) can make a new search deal, the companies announced this morning that Google will be the portal’s exclusive search partner through Dec. 31, 2015. The expanded search and content deal now covers mobile search and puts AOL’s…

NHN, which dominates the search market in South Korea and has been relying on Yahoo to power search ads on its Naver search engine for six years, says it won’t be renewing the deal—marking the second time in two months that a major Asian partner has cut ties with Yahoo…

By John Plunkett: Marketing messages that appear on company websites and social media services such as Facebook and Twitter are to be subject to the same regulations as adverts that appear on television, newspapers or other media.

*Sony* will begin selling updated versions of its Reader Pocket and Reader Touch devices today, but it is still months away from releasing its new Daily Reader with WiFi access. In practical terms, that means that Sony (NYSE: SNE) will not be directly competing with the Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) Kindle…

Target won’t be the only bricks-and-mortar retail outlet for Kindles much longer. Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) is adding the Staples office supplies chain to the mix this fall, making that two options for would-be buyers to try out the device. The deal will put Kindle in Staples—the chain has more than…

Some of the stories people are talking about this morning:»  Now you can train your Gmail: Google’s new tool “Priority Inbox” predicts which messages are likely to be most important to each Gmail user. [GigaOm] »  Glenn Beck launched news and information site TheBlaze.com last night. With a “small scrappy…

As luck would have it, I was on the go when the U.S. leg of the tennis Grand Slam started Monday, providing a good chance to test the live streaming video for iPad and the new mobile features from USOpen.org. The USTA went iOS-centric with an iPad-optimized browser and an…

Google (NSDQ: GOOG) continues to buy up social-related firms in preparation for the launch of the new social networking effort it has under way. Its latest acquisition is mobile game startup SocialDeck, which is behind several very-addicting mobile games, including Shake & Spell, a spelling game that users can simultaneously…

After more than half a year of “ongoing discussions,” Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has renewed its deal with the Associated Press to host AP articles on Google News. Google began to host material produced by the AP on the site three years ago, but the licensing deal expired in January and…

YouTube will be broadcasting all Major League Baseball games on its site in Japan next year, in what the company is calling “the largest partnership for premium sports content” in its history.

Some of the stories people are talking about this morning:»  YouTube is negotiating with the major movie studios to launch a streaming video service, which would include new releases and could launch as soon as the end of the year. If this all sounds familiar, that’s because there were similar…

Google’s proposed $750 million acquisition of travel search technology provider ITA Software isn’t ready for take off quite yet; Google says the Department of Justice wants more information about the acquisition before giving the deal its OK.

Google (NSDQ: GOOG) continues to pick up talent—and to add to its tech ability to compete with Facebook—by acq-hiring. The latest: buying social search startup Angstro and hiring its highly respected co-founder Rohit Khare to work on its social net Google Me. Khare started the company in 2006 with investor…

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Corp. co-founder Paul Allen is suing Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and nine other companies indirectly through his firm Interval (NSDQ: IILG) Licensing alleging that the technology giants are violating patents developed at a lab in Silicon Valley that he financed more than a decade ago,…

When YouTube launched a US TV section in April 2009, with shows from CBS (NYSE: CBS), it came along with a Movies section, with flicks from MGM and Lionsgate. In the same way, the video site is now adding a UK movies section to the UK TV section it opened…

Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is giving its real-time search service—which aggregate updates from sites like Facebook and Twitter—a refresh. The company says that real-time results, which have been integrated among standard web results since December, will now also be accessible from their own site. In making that change, Google is taking…

Tencent, the Chinese internet company behind IM service and portal QQ, has bought up Comsenz, a Google-backed company which is behind the Discuz online discussion board platform, which is extremely popular in China, among other community products. Google (NSDQ: GOOG) had invested $1 million in Comsenz two years ago. It’s…

Appolicious, the app directory site founded by former Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) News head Alan Warms, is broadening its ties to Warms’ former employer. Appolicious is launching a new site dedicated to helping people find third-party apps that work on Yahoo sites, including the homepage and Yahoo Mail. The company is…