Facebook overtakes eBay as third most valuable US web firm

Facebook is now worth more than eBay in terms of privately held stock, making it the third- largest US internet business, and fueling speculation that the social network could sell shares to the public in the not-to-distant future. Facebook’s stock is trading at more...

YouTube boosts stickiness with search topic suggestions

YouTube is trialing a new service called ‘Topics on Search’, giving viewers examples of related searches. The tool, available on the video sharing site’s beta testing area ‘TestTube’, uses an algorithm that looks at video tags, comments, shares, viewing patters, and...

19.2m UK households online… but digital divide remains

Around 19.2 million UK households are now online, but just 26% of those on the lowest incomes have access to the web, according to new research. In its first ever collation of trends in “e-society”, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveals that 83%...

Ask ditches search for community answers

Ask.com is cutting 130 engineering jobs and outsourcing its search technology, as the internet icon finally concedes that it cannot compete with Google and Bing in the search market. In a move similar to Yahoo, which recently outsourced its search technology to...

Google integrates contextual AdSense ads into AdMob

Google is bringing its contextual AdSense ads to its AdMob platform, the mobile advertising technology it bought in 2009. Google’s AdSense focuses on context, serving up ads the software believes match the website’s content. The move means AdSense ads...

iPlayer going global: BBC plans to charge overseas viewers

The BBC has announced plans to make its popular iPlayer online video platform available for International users, for a fee. The announcement was made by John Smith, Chief Executive of BBC Worldwide. Although there has been no official statement as yet from the BBC...

Google debuts ‘Instant Previews’ search tool

Google has launched a new tool that allows searchers to see previews of websites before clicking on them in the results page. The “Instant Previews” feature announced Tuesday is meant to help people bypass websites that are either irrelevant or simply too...

Facebook accounts for nearly 1 in 4 display ads in US

Nearly 1.3 trillion display ads were delivered to U.S. Internet users during the third quarter, up 22% on last year, according to new data. comScore’s overview of the U.S. online display advertising market for Q3 2010, which showed strong gains following softness for...