As part of its much-touted new MSN Music offering, Microsoft Corp. is testing a Web-based radio service that mimics nearly 1,000 local radio stations, allowing users to hear a version of their favorite radio station with far fewer interruptions.

Frustrated by the slow speed of broadband rollouts in their towns, local governments across the USA are building their own networks. Their common goal: to secure a bright future by building a business-quality network now.

As Internet giants step into the crowded online music arena, some are banking on a new weapon to help attack market leader Apple Computer: instant messaging.

Online music company eMusic on Tuesday said it was revamping its service to provide commentary and reviews to complement its catalog of more than 500,000 tracks from independent labels.

America Online is partnering with Entertainment Weekly for an original Internet skein about the week in television.

America Online will begin offering to sell members a security device and service that has been used to safeguard business computer networks, the world's largest Internet service provider said on Tuesday.

Internet bloggers have drawn blood and American journalism may never be the same. To hear some press experts tell it, CBS's admission on Monday that it was duped into using questionable documents about President Bush's National Guard service during the Vietnam War was a watershed moment brought on by a small army of Internet-based commentators known as bloggers.

Ask Jeeves is expected to unveil personalization features, local search capabilities on Tuesday, plus an upgrade to its Teoma search technology and a new, thinner butler mascot.

Karsten M. Self, who oversees a children's computer lab at a youth center in Napa, Calif., spends about a half-hour each morning electronically scanning 10 PC's. He is searching for files and traces of code that threaten to hijack the computers by silently monitoring the children's online activities or by plastering their screens with dizzying - and nearly unstoppable - onslaughts of pop-up advertisements.

Call it the kitty's third life. Roxio bought the Napster brand name and feline logo at a bankruptcy auction two years ago and with the acquisition of another music service, Pressplay, relaunched the once-renegade file-swapping pioneer as a legal music service last October.