Those mosquito-like "pop-up" and "pop-under" Web advertisements could be headed for rapid extinction after Microsoft Corp. decided to phase them out across its MSN Internet units around the globe by summer.

Some users of the popular AOL Instant Messenger program were bombarded Wednesday with messages seemingly from friends that linked to a humorous Osama bin Laden game. Downloading the game, however, installed a piggybacking program that broadcast the advertisement from the infected computer to all correspondents on its AIM buddy lists.

Internet services company Yahoo Inc. on Wednesday launched an enhanced version of its instant messenger service to run on PCS Vision mobile telephones from partner Sprint Corp.

Walt Disney Co. has agreed to license copy-protection technology from Microsoft Corp. for distributing movies over the Internet, the companies said on Sunday.

Microsoft Corp., which has declared war on spam and those responsible for floods of unsolicited electronic mail, is aiming to raise the cost of spam for spammers with a new technology targeting the low barrier to sending mass messages.

Microsoft Corp.'s Web site remained online on Tuesday despite a pre-planned attack by a MyDoom worm variant, which had not spread as widely as the first version that infected hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide.

Vodafone of Britain and NTT DoCoMo of Japan are mulling bids for AT&T Wireless with an eye toward creating globe-girdling cellular networks. If a company like Vodafone added a North American cellphone company to its sizable operations in Europe and Asia, it could become the wireless carrier of choice for the global road warriors of the 21st century.