Oh, what to do with $40 billion, what to do? That was the key issue facing Apple CEO Steve Jobs at an annual shareholders meeting on Thursday. "Think big," for one, said Jobs. That, according to Reuters, means the company has no immediate plans to spend the money on something as pedestrian as a share buyback or dividend. "When you take risks, it's like jumping in the air," Jobs said. "When they don't work out, it's nice to know the ground is always there." Spoken like a true innovator and risk taker -- not to mention a …

Hoping to strike gold twice, Hulu investor and private equity firm Providence Equity Partners plans to invest $50 million in a new online video business controlled by Chinese-owned Baidu. China's top search engine operator said its plans to take a majority stake in the venture, which, like Hulu, will serve as a platform for professionally made video and accompanying advertising. Along with Providence, News Corp., NBC Universal, and the Walt Disney control Hulu stateside. For the Chinese version, Baidu said it will used licensed video content, although it is not clear if the operator has any existing …

Curiously named on-demand music streaming service MOG just raised an additional $9.5 million in funding. The funding round was led by existing investor Menlo Ventures, along with Balderton Capital. To date, the startup as already secured backing from Universal Music Group and Sony Music, and has raised over $10 million in angel and Series A rounds. Since its December launch, MOG has sought a share of the subscription music business by offering users 256kbps streams for a $5-per-month fee. The space, however, is already quite crowded with entrenched players like Napster, Rhapsody, and the domestically destined Spotify. …

Doubling down on local search and discovery services, Google just launched a 'Nearby' search option, which refines search results to one's nearby surroundings. The tool -- located in the 'Search Options' bar on the left side of Google's search layout -- can be adjusted to show another area's nearby results by entering a custom location. Yet, according to The Next Web, the new service is a work-in-progress. "We've found mixed results so far," the blog writes. Similarly, last month, Google made its "Near Me Now" service live on iPhones and Android smartphones, which helps users retrieve timely …

Want to know how Twitter's highly-anticipated ad platform is going to look and function? Just check out AdSense, says MediaMemo. According to those briefed by the microblogging leader, its ads will be tie into Twitter searches -- "in the same way that Google's original ads did" -- and will only show up in search results. Also, the ads will use the Twitter format -- 140 characters or less -- and will be distributed via the third party software and services that use Twitter's API. Meanwhile, Twitter plans to work with ad agencies and buyers to "seed" the …

Hold the social media phone! Facebook is following in the patent-happy footsteps of Friendster. In a development that could seriously disrupt the strategies of both leading and emerging social platforms, Facebook has been granted a patent on "displaying a news feed in a social network environment," i.e., its Newsfeed. "This is a huge deal for a number of reasons, most significantly that it grants Facebook the opportunity to pursue other social networks which are infringing on their patent," writes AllFacebook, which broke the news, and calls the patent potentially one of the most significant in a …

Rupert Murdoch's grand plans to put his vast kingdom of content behind pay-walls is "completely antithetical to the way everything is going," insists The Guardian's editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger. Still, Rusbridger welcomes the strategy because he believes it will likely result in his paper becoming the biggest English-language newspaper in the world. In the greater interest of journalist and the societal role it plays, Rusbridger implores publishers far and wide to consider "open" publishing models. "If you are open, that means you want to be part of the way the web works rather than simply on the web," …

Social seems like a natural progression for many companies and services, today, and eBay's PayPal is no exception. The popular pay service is now going after developers of social-media payment applications -- "whether or not the product is branded with the PayPal name," notes The Wall Street Journal's Digits blog. Alluding to all the innovation surrounding social, today, EBay CEO John Donahoe says he wants PayPal "to be the platform on which some of these social-media applications get built." As an example, Donahoe used Twitpay, a service that lets users send payments via Twitter. Bigger picture, Donahoe …

Whether black was required dress is unclear, but Google held several "funerals" on Wednesday for five Gmail Labs features that were deemed to be unpopular among email users. The search giant also "graduated" six Gmail features -- part of a history of graduating and "killing" test features that has been going on since Gmail Labs debuted back in mid-2008. "At Google, in general, the philosophy is to get things out quickly in front of our users and not make huge promises," Ari Leichtberg, a Google engineer, tells CNN. "Gmail was a beta app for a while in …

As anyone who watched Bravo last night may already know, up-and-coming location-based social network Foursquare just ran its first TV spot. It apparently appeared alongside the always riveting docu-drama "Sheer Genius" between the hours of 9 and 10 PM. The 20-second spot was actually created by Bravo to highlight its recently announced partnership with Foursquare, which includes virtual Bravo branded "badges," and prizes for Foursquare members who "check-in" via mobile device at various Bravo themed locations. Bravo is inviting marketers to participate through promotional elements such as partner sweepstakes, which will be tied to users' unlocking the …